Reconfigurable foldable and/or origami passive arrays

A method of fabricating a passive antenna array, the method comprising:

• providing a foldable substrate configured to be folded, the foldable substrate being an origami substrate;
• forming a plurality of antenna elements on the foldable substrate;
• and
• folding the foldable substrate to create folding lines that fold into a Miura-Ori configuration, the passive antenna array having an unfolded state and a plurality of folded states including the Miura-Ori configuration,
• the folding lines dividing the substrate into a plurality of discrete antenna portions, each antenna portion of the plurality of discrete antenna portions having a quadrilateral shape, and each of the quadrilateral-shaped antenna portions being unfolded when the passive antenna array is in the Miura-Ori configuration folded state, and
• the plurality of antenna elements being disposed on the plurality of discrete antenna portions, respectively, and each antenna portion comprising exactly one antenna element disposed thereon.

A passive antenna array, comprising:

• a foldable substrate configured to be folded;
• and
• a plurality of antenna elements disposed on the substrate,
• the foldable substrate having predefined folding lines that fold into a Miura-Ori configuration, the passive antenna array having an unfolded state and a plurality of folded states including the Miura-Ori configuration,
• the predefined folding lines dividing the substrate into a plurality of discrete antenna portions, each antenna portion of the plurality of discrete antenna portions having a quadrilateral shape, and each of the quadrilateral-shaped antenna portions being unfolded when the passive antenna array is in the Miura-Ori configuration folded state,
• the plurality of antenna elements being disposed on the plurality of discrete antenna portions, respectively, and each antenna portion comprising exactly one antenna element disposed thereon,
• each antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements comprising a rhombic shape or a tilted Jerusalem cross shape,
• the foldable substrate being an origami substrate
• the foldable substrate having a thickness of less than 30 millimeters (mm),
• the foldable substrate comprising paper, cardboard, plastic, FR4, Kapton, or Duroid,
• the passive antenna array being configured to operate at a frequency in a range of from 1 gigahertz (GHz) to 12 GHz,
• each antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements comprising copper, aluminum, gold, silver, or platinum,
• the passive antenna array being configured to operate at different respective frequency modes at the unfolded state and different folded states of the plurality of folded states,
• the passive antenna array being configured such that a frequency response is tuned by changing a folding angle of antenna portions of the plurality of antenna portions,
• the passive antenna array being further configured such that a relative angle between neighboring antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements determines whether the passive antenna array has single-band frequency selective surface response or dual-band frequency selective surface response, and
• the foldable substrate being a dielectric substrate.