A Ka-Band Cylindrical Paneled Reflectarray Antenna

Abstract

Cylindrical parabolic reflectors have been widely used in those applications requiring high gain antennas. Their design is dictated by the geometric relation of the parabola, which relate the feed location, f, to the radiating aperture, D. In this work, the use of reflectarrays is proposed to increase D without changing the feed location. In the proposed approach, the reflecting surface is loaded with dielectric panels where the phase of the reflected field is controlled using continuous metal strips of variable widths. This solution is enabled by the cylindrical symmetry and, with respect to rectangular patches or to other discrete antennas, it provides increased gain. The proposed concept has been evaluated by designing a Ka-band antenna operating in the Rx SatCom band (19–21 GHz). A prototype has been designed and the results compared with the ones of a parabolic cylindrical reflector using the same feed architecture. Simulated results have shown how this type of antenna can provide higher gain in comparison to the parabolic counterpart, reaching a radiation efficiency of 65%.