A Wideband, Multifunctional Reflect-Transmit-Array Antenna With Polarization-Dependent Operation

Abstract

A novel wideband, multifunctional space-fed planar array antenna is proposed in this article to independently control forward/backward beams. A novel four-layer polarization-dependent unit cell is introduced as the phasing element. A generalized-scattering-matrix (GSM)-based network model is developed to evaluate the element performance and optimize the element structure. Then, a system-level analysis in terms of source feed performance, antenna configuration, and efficiency factors are demonstrated. To verify the design concept, a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$13\times 13$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -element ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$195 \text {mm}\times 195 \text {mm}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) antenna prototype is designed, fabricated, and tested. The measured realized gains of the reflectarray functionality and transmitarray functionality at 10 GHz are 24 dBi with 18.6% 1 dB fractional gain bandwidth and 23.5 dBi with 22.6% 1 dB fractional gain bandwidth, respectively. Moreover, an additional experiment is implemented to verify the simultaneously bidirectional capability of the proposed antenna. Measured results match well with those of simulation, revealing potential for bidirectional wireless communication applications.