Deployable multi-faceted reflectarray antenna in offset configuration with band enhancement

Abstract

A multi-faceted reflectarray that follows a parabolic cylinder structure is presented to improve the antenna bandwidth compared to a conventional reflectarray. The antenna is suitable to be used in SmallSats since it is low-profile and low-cost and can be easily folded and deployed on this kind of platform. To evaluate the characteristics of this solution as well as the ability to work in different polarizations, two multi-faceted demonstrators have been designed, manufactured, and tested. They generate a pencil beam pattern in Ka-band and are compared to a single facet offset reflectarray of equivalent aperture size. The multi-faceted structure conveniently exploits both the unit cell properties as well as the geometry to achieve a significant improvement in antenna bandwidth compared to the single facet version, with a better trade-off between antenna characteristics and performance achieved.