US 2026/0196740 A1 · REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA ELEMENT WITH 2-BIT PHASE QUANTIZATION AND MINIMUM-SWITCH TOPOLOGY

Abstract

A reflectarray antenna element includes a first dielectric layer, a conductive ground layer mounted to the first dielectric layer and including an aperture formed therethrough, a second dielectric layer mounted to the conductive ground layer, a radiating patch layer mounted to the second dielectric layer, a delay line layer mounted to the first dielectric layer and comprising a first delay line connected to an open-circuit termination and a second delay line connected to a short-circuit termination, and a first switch and a second switch electrically connected to the first delay line and the second delay line. The first delay line and the second delay line are positioned to couple electromagnetically with the aperture, and each switch is switchable between an ON state and an OFF state.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A reflectarray antenna element comprising:

a first dielectric layer;
a conductive ground layer mounted to the first dielectric layer and including an aperture formed therethrough;
a second dielectric layer mounted to the conductive ground layer;
a radiating patch layer mounted to the second dielectric layer;
a delay line layer mounted to the first dielectric layer and comprising a first delay line connected to an open-circuit termination and a second delay line connected to a short-circuit termination, wherein the first delay line and the second delay line are positioned to couple electromagnetically with the aperture;
and
a first switch and a second switch electrically connected to the first delay line and the second delay line, wherein each switch is switchable between an ON state and an OFF state.

4 more elements

A method of operating a reconfigurable reflectarray antenna, the method comprising:

providing a reflective array surface comprising a plurality of reflectarray antenna elements, wherein each reflectarray antenna element comprises a delay line layer with a first delay line connected to an open-circuit termination and a second delay line connected to a short-circuit termination, and a first switch and a second switch electrically connected to the first delay line and the second delay line;
generating an incident electromagnetic wave using a feed antenna;
for each reflectarray antenna element, determining a reflection phase shift based on a phase of the incident electromagnetic wave at the reflectarray antenna element and a desired outgoing phase to direct a main beam at a selected scan angle;
quantizing the reflection phase shift into one of four discrete phase shift levels corresponding to four operating modes;
setting states of the first switch and the second switch of each reflectarray antenna element based on the quantized phase shift level;
and
reflecting the incident electromagnetic wave from the reflective array surface to form a beam directed at the selected scan angle.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Reflectarray antenna element with 2-bit phase quantization and minimum-switch topology

Life of this patent

Reflectarray antenna element with 2-bit phase quantization and minimum-switch topology

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20