1-bit Low-Cost Electronically Reconfigurable Reflectarray and Phased Array Based on p-i-n Diodes for Dynamic Beam Scanning
- Resource Type
- Periodical
- Authors
- Ning, Y.; Zhu, S.; Chu, H.; Zou, Q.; Zhang, C.; Li, J.; Xiao, P.; Li, G.
- Source
- IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat. Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on. 72(2):2007-2012 Feb, 2024
- Subject
- Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Aerospace
Transportation
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Antenna arrays
Phased arrays
Reflection
PIN photodiodes
Reflector antennas
Antenna feeds
Switches
1-bit phase resolution
beam scanning
electronically reconfigurable
phased array (PA) antenna
p-i-n diodes
reflectarray (RA) antenna
- Language
- ISSN
- 0018-926X
1558-2221
This work proposes an element with a 1-bit phase resolution that operates in both reflection and radiation modes. The 1-bit phase responses in two operating modes can be realized by switching the states of three integrated p-i-n diodes. The array composed of the elements can be excited as both a reflectarray (RA) by the external feed in space and a phased array (PA) without phase shifters by the integrated feeding network at its bottom. Drawing inspiration from the RA, the feeding network introduces initial phase distributions irradiated by a hypothetical spatial feed above the PA to mitigate the grating lobes of the 1-bit PA. An electronically reconfigurable array antenna prototype composed of 8 $\times $ 16 elements was manufactured and measured to verify its performance. The experimental results indicate that the designed array antenna can realize dynamic beam scanning in the range of ±45° in E-plane and ±30° in H-plane within less than 3 dB gain loss, verifying its feasibility for both RA and PA applications.