Analysis and design of passive and active microstrip reflectarrays

The design of reflectarrays is a complex and time-consuming process that very often relies on a trial-and-error approach. In this article, a simplified analysis based on a commercial simulator is proposed. This method, valid for both passive and active antennas, uses a simulator to characterize the single radiating cell and evaluates the contribution of the finite ground plane using physical optics approximation. The proposed design technique has been validated by comparing the simulated response of the single element with the experimentally retrieved phase of the active and passive cell. As a proof of the design concept's feasibility, two small reflectarrays, active and passive, have been prototyped and tested. The measured radiation patterns are presented and discussed