Design of Ka-Band Reflectarray for Space

Submitted by
Tan Xue Wen (A0139082E)

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

In partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Engineering
National University of Singapore
 ABSTRACT

This dissertation will be presenting the process of designing the Ka-Band

reflectarray antenna which is widely used in satellite application. There is high

demand for such antenna due to its ease of fabrication and installation on any flat

surface as opposed to a parabolic bowl antenna, while providing high gain. The

design process can be broken down into two parts: element design & system design.

Several element designs and reflectarray configurations were investigated to gain

comprehensive understanding on the topic. The end product of this project is a Ka-

band reflectarray with a circular aperture consisting of 51×51 square ring patch

elements, operating at 28 GHz range. The elements are printed on a 60mil Rogers

4003C substrate, backed by a ground plane. The element grid size is 4.4mm

(~0.411λ0), the square ring patch element can achieve up to about 400°of reflection

phase variation by varying their size. The proposed reflectarray displays a peak gain

of 33.94 dB with an aperture efficiency of 57.14% and a 1-dB gain bandwidth of

6%. The reflectarray is fed by an off-set pyramidal horn (LB-28-15) angled at

17.283° with a F/D ratio of 0.9. The proposed reflectarray design was also

fabricated and tested in the microwave chamber / compact range to validate the

theoretical design of the reflectarray. Lastly for exploration, a dual frequency/band

reflectarray was further studied to overcome the narrow bandwidth characteristic

(which is beyond the scope of this project). The author has also programmed an

automated reflectarray designer software to provide a teaching platform for

newcomer with zero experience in reflectarray.

i
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to dedicate this page to Prof. Chen Zhi Ning, Dr. Chia Tse

Tong and Dr. Li Teng to specially thank them for their time and support throughout

this project.

Prof. Chen Zhi Ning has given the author an opportunity to work on this wonderful

project and funding on the fabrication of the antenna. Prof. Chen has been a great

mentor who gives critical and constructive advice to the author since the start of the

project. The author picked up this project because he was touched by Prof. Chen’s

teaching (EE2011) 2 years ago.

Dr. Chia Tse Tong kickstarted the entire project by introducing the author to the

concept of reflectarray. Dr. Chia had been providing round-the-clock support

whenever the author had doubts. He proof-read the author’s writings throughout the

entire FYP journey which is beyond his job-scope. In addition, he provided the

author a workspace in Temasek lab. The author is extremely grateful for Dr. Chia

unwavering guidance and hope to work with him again in the future if given the

opportunity.

Lastly to Dr. Li Teng who supported the author on his last sprint for the fabrication

and testing of the antenna. The fabricated antenna is a huge success thanks to him.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

LIST OF FIGURES v

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS x

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Project Overview 1

1.2 Project Flowchart 3

2 Background 4

2.1 Antenna Fundamentals 4

2.2 Antenna Parameters 5

3 Literature Review 9

3.1 Reflectarray Antenna 9

3.2 Analysis and Design of Reflectarray 12

3.3 Phase Tuning Approaches for Reflectarray Element 17

4 Reflectarray – Element Design 21

4.1 Square Patch Element – Single Resonator 21

4.2 Square Patch Element – Multi-layering 22

4.3 Single Layer Multi-Resonating Element (Chosen) 25

5 Reflectarray – Center Feed Design 28

5.1 System Design – Pyramidal Horn Theory 28

5.2 System Design – LB-28-15 Feed 29

5.3 Reflectarray F/D and Phase Distribution 32

5.4 System Design – Element Mapping 33

5.5 System Design – AUTOCAD Script Automation 34

5.6 Simulation Result 35

iii
6 Reflectarray – Offset Feed Design 45

6.1 Feed Position & Phase Distribution 46

6.2 Offset Configuration with Tilted Beam 51

7 Reflectarray – with a Splash Plate Feed 54

7.1 Design Approach for a Splash Plate 54

7.2 Narrow Beamwidth Splash Plate 59

8 Fabrication & Measurement Results 62

9 Conclusion and Future Work 65

10 Bonus & Exploration Work 66

10.1 Dual Frequency/Band Reflectarray for 5G Communication (28/38GHz) 66

10.2 Automated Reflectarray Design App 73

10.3 Radiation Analysis Techniques 74

References 75

Appendix A – Reflectarray Automation App Algorithm 77

Appendix B – Health & Safety 87

iv
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1: ANTENNA AS A TRANSITION DEVICE [2]. 4

FIGURE 2: EXAMPLE OF RADIATION PATTERN IN 2D & 3D [2]. 8
FIGURE 3: THE FIRST REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA USING WAVEGUIDE TECHNOLOGY [3]. 9
FIGURE 4: COMPARISON BETWEEN REFLECTARRAY AND PARABOLIC REFLECTOR ANTENNA. 10
FIGURE 5: DIFFERENTIAL SPATIAL PHASE DELAY OF REFLECTARRAY: PHASE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN TWO PATHS S1 AND S2 FROM THE FEED TO THE REFLECTARRAY ELEMENTS. 11
FIGURE 6: GEOMETRY OF THE REFLECTARRAY [4]. 13
FIGURE 7: VISUALIZATION OF THE RE-RADIATED WAVE. 13
FIGURE 8: PHASES ON THE APERTURE WITH AN OFFSET FEED AND OFF-BROADSIDE BEAM: (A)
SPATIAL DELAY, (B) PROGRESSIVE PHASE, (C) PHASE DISTRIBUTION ON THE
REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA, AND (D) PHASE DISTRIBUTION ON THE CONTINUOUS APERTURE.
[4] 14
FIGURE 9: RADIATION PATTERN FOR DIFFERENT Q. 15
FIGURE 10: EXAMPLE OF EFFICIENCIES VS F/D PLOT. 16
FIGURE 11: WORKING MECHANISM OF THE PHASE-DELAY LINE. 17
FIGURE 12: APERTURE COUPLED PATCHES WITH SLOTS AND DELAY LINE [8]. 18
FIGURE 13: EXAMPLE OF REFLECTARRAY USING VARYING ELEMENT SIZE. 19
FIGURE 14: MULTILAYER STRUCTURE – 3 LAYERS (LEFT) [9]; MULTILAYER ELEMENT – 2 LAYERS
(RIGHT). 19
FIGURE 15: LEFT) SINGLE RESONATING ELEMENT; MIDDLE) DOUBLE RESONATING ELEMENT;
RIGHT) TRIPLE RESONATING ELEMENT. 20
FIGURE 16: MODEL FOR THE SINGLE PATCH ELEMENT. 21
FIGURE 17: PHASE SHIFT VS R1 (LEFT) ; RETURN LOSS VS R1 (RIGHT) FOR SINGLE PATCH
ELEMENT. 22
FIGURE 18: MODEL FOR 2-LAYER SQUARE PATCH ELEMENT. 23
FIGURE 19: PHASE SHIFT VS R1 (LEFT); RETURN LOSS VS R1 (RIGHT) FOR 2-LAYER SQUARE PATCH
ELEMENT. 23
FIGURE 20: MODEL OF 2-LAYER SQUARE PATCH WITH DIFFERENT SIZE RATIO. R2 = K1×R1 &
PHASE SHIFT WITH DIFFERENT K1 @ THETA = 0°. 24
FIGURE 21: PHASE SHIFT VS R1 (LEFT); RETURN LOSS VS R1 (RIGHT) FOR 2-LAYER SQUARE PATCH
ELEMENT @ K1 = 0.7. 25
FIGURE 22: MODEL OF SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT: R2 = K1×R1, W = K2×R1. 26
FIGURE 23: (LEFT) VARYING K1 @ K2 = 0.1; (RIGHT) VARYING K2 @ K1 = 0.6, BOTH @ THETA = 0°. 26
FIGURE 24: PHASE SHIFT VS R1 (LEFT) ; RETURN LOSS VS R1 (RIGHT) FOR SQUARE RING PATCH
ELEMENT @ K1 = 0.6, K2 = 0.2. 27

v
FIGURE 25: PYRAMIDAL HORN AND COORDINATE SYSTEM [2]. 28
FIGURE 26: LB-28-15 SCHEMATIC DRAWING [11]. 30
FIGURE 27: LB-28-15 RADIATION PATTERN A) DATASHEET [11] ; B) CST SIMULATED RESULT. 31
FIGURE 28: 3D RADIATION PATTERN OF THE LB-28-15 & Q VALUE FOR LB-28-15. 31
FIGURE 29: THEORETICAL F/D PLOT FOR D = 224.4MM & Q = 6.4. 33
FIGURE 30: CENTER FEED A) RAW PHASE DISTRIBUTION PLOT; B) NORMALIZED PHASE
DISTRIBUTION PLOT BY 360°. 33
FIGURE 31: (A) DATASET CATEGORIZATION; (B) FINALIZED DIMENSION MAPPING. 34
FIGURE 32: ELEMENT DRAWING AUTOMATION PROCESS. 35
FIGURE 33: SYMMETRY PLANES FOR CENTER-FED REFLECTARRAY. 36
FIGURE 34: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN @ 28GHZ. 36
FIGURE 35: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN @ 28GHZ. 37
FIGURE 36: MAXIMUM REALIZED GAIN VS FREQUENCY FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT. 38
FIGURE 37: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE SINGLE PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN @ 28GHZ. 38
FIGURE 38: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE SINGLE PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN @ 28GHZ. 39
FIGURE 39: MAXIMUM REALIZED GAIN VS FREQUENCY FOR SINGLE PATCH ELEMENT. 40
FIGURE 40: ILLUSTRATION OF PARABOLA WITH DEFINING PARAMETERS [12]. 41
FIGURE 41: PARABOLIC REFLECTOR DESIGN WINDOW. 42
FIGURE 42: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE PARABOLIC BOWL REFLECTOR ANTENNA @ 28GHZ.
42
FIGURE 43: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE PARABOLIC BOWL REFLECTOR ANTENNA @ 28GHZ.
43
FIGURE 44: MAXIMUM REALIZED GAIN VS FREQUENCY FOR PARABOLIC BOWL REFLECTOR
ANTENNA. 44
FIGURE 45: APERTURE BLOCKAGE IN FRONT‐FED REFLECTARRAY SYSTEMS: (A) SYMMETRIC, (B)
OFFSET [4]. 45
FIGURE 46: GEOMETRY OF THE OFFSET CONFIGURATION. 46
FIGURE 47: OFFSET FEED A) RAW PHASE DISTRIBUTION PLOT, B) NORMALIZED PHASE
DISTRIBUTION PLOT BY 360°. 47
FIGURE 48: DATASET CATEGORIZATION FOR OFFSET. 47
FIGURE 49: SYMMETRY PLANES FOR OFFSET-FED REFLECTARRAY. 48
FIGURE 50: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN - OFFSET FED
CONFIGURATION @ 28GHZ. 48
FIGURE 51: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR THE SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN - OFFSET
FED CONFIGURATION @ 28GHZ, E-PLANE (TOP), H-PLANE (BOTTOM). 49
FIGURE 52: MAXIMUM REALIZED GAIN VS FREQUENCY FOR OFFSET FED REFLECTARRAY. 49

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FIGURE 53: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN CENTER FED
WITH STRUCTURE @28GHZ. 50
FIGURE 54: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN CENTER FED
WITH STRUCTURE @28GHZ. 50
FIGURE 55: GEOMETRY OF THE OFFSET CONFIGURATION FOR TITLED BEAM. 51
FIGURE 56: OFFSET FEED WITH TILTED BEAM @ 17°PHASE DISTRIBUTION. 52
FIGURE 57: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN - OFFSET FED
WITH TILTED BEAM AT -17°@ 28GHZ. 52
FIGURE 58: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN - OFFSET FED
WITH TILTED BEAM AT -17°@ 28GHZ. 53
FIGURE 59: VISUALIZATION OF THE SPLASH PLATE FEED CONFIGURATION. 54
FIGURE 60: G.T.D MODEL [13]. 55
FIGURE 61: GEOMETRY OF THE DESIGNED SPLASH PLATE. 56
FIGURE 62: RADIATION PATTERN OF THE SPLASH PLATE. 56
FIGURE 63: F/D PLOT FOR THE SPLASH PLATE CONFIGURATION. 57
FIGURE 64: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN WITH SPLASH
PLATE FEED @ 28GHZ. 58
FIGURE 65: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN WITH SPLASH
PLATE FEED @ 28GHZ. 58
FIGURE 66: GEOMETRY OF THE NARROW BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE. 59
FIGURE 67: RADIATION PATTERN OF THE NARROW-BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE. 60
FIGURE 68: F/D PLOT FOR THE NARROW BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE CONFIGURATION. 60
FIGURE 69: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN WITH NARROW
BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE FEED @ 28GHZ. 61
FIGURE 70: 2D RADIATION PATTERN FOR SQUARE RING PATCH ELEMENT DESIGN WITH NARROW
BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE FEED @ 28GHZ. 61
FIGURE 71: MODEL OF THE REFLECTARRAY WITH THE HOLDING STRUCTURE. 62
FIGURE 72: FABRICATED REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA TESTED IN MICROWAVE CHAMBER (LEFT) &
COMPACT RANGE (RIGHT). 63
FIGURE 73: MEASURED VS SIMULATED RESULT @ 28GHZ. 63
FIGURE 74: MEASURED MAXIMUM GAIN OVER FREQUENCIES. 64
FIGURE 75: REFLECTING SURFACE GEOMETRY OF A SINGLE-LAYER DUAL-FREQUENCY
REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA. 67
FIGURE 76: GEOMETRY OF THE (A) 28 GHZ CROSS DIPOLE & (B) 38 GHZ SQUARE RING PATCH
PHASING ELEMENT, R2=K1×R1, W=K2×R1. 68
FIGURE 77: REFLECTED PHASE RESPONSE VERSUS DIMENSION A) DIPOLE (L1) & B) SQUARE RING
PATCH (R1). 69

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FIGURE 78: F/D CURVE FOR THE PROPOSED DESIGN. 70
FIGURE 79: PHASE DISTRIBUTION CURVE FOR A) 28 GHZ & B) 38 GHZ. 70
FIGURE 80: SCHEMATIC VIEW OF THE DUAL-FREQUENCY REFLECTARRAY. 71
FIGURE 81: A) SIMULATED RADIATION PATTERNS AT 28 GHZ AND 38 GHZ; B) SIMULATED GAIN
AND APERTURE EFFICIENCY IN FREQUENCY BAND. 72
FIGURE 82: 3D RADIATION PATTERN FOR BOTH 28GHZ AND 38GHZ STACKED TOGETHER. 72
FIGURE 83: GRAPHICS USER INTERFACE OF THE REFLECTARRAY DESIGN APPLICATION. 73
FIGURE 84: ARRAY THEORY VS CST SIMULATION RADIATION PATTERN. 74

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 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: FREQUENCY VS GAIN OF LB-28-15 HORN ANTENNA [11]. 44

ix
 LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

U Radiation Intensity

f Frequency

G Gain

s Spillover Efficiency

i Illumination Efficiency

a Aperture Efficiency

P Power

E Electric field

H Magnetic field

Ae Effective Aperture Area

λ Wavelength

λ0 Wavelength in free space

Ri Displacement from feed to element i

k0 Wavenumber in free space

φR Required phase compensation by the phasing element

θo Desired reflected beam in Theta direction

φo Desired reflected beam in Phi direction

q Q-Value

φref Reference phase

D Diameter of aperture

D0 Aperture Blockage Diameter

x
3D 3 Dimension

5G 5th Generation

AutoCAD Auto Computer-Aided Design

BW Bandwidth

CST MWS Computer Simulation Technology Microwave Studio

dB Decibel

dBi Decibel Isotropic

EM Electromagnetic

F/D Focal to Diameter Ratio

FBP Feed Beam Point

FNBW First-Null Beamwidth

FSS Frequency Selective Surface

FYP Final Year Project

G.T.D Geometrical Theory of Diffraction

HF High Frequency

HFSS High Frequency Structure Simulator

HPBW Half Power Beamwidth

Hz Hertz

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

MATLAB Matrix Laboratory

MIMO Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output

NUS National University of Singapore

PCB Printed Circuit Board

xi
PTFE Polytetrafluoroethylene

RA Reflectarray

RF Radio Frequency

TEM Transverse Electric & Magnetic

VSWR Voltage Standing Wave Ratio

xii
 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PROJECT OVERVIEW

The project assigned for the Final Year Project (FYP) is on the study of “Design of Ka-Band

Reflectarray for Space”. The project is mainly research in nature that deals with studies of the

reflectarray operating in Ka-Band frequency. Ka-Band refers to the range of 26.5 – 40 GHz, which

is often used for satellite communication. With the upcoming development in 5G mobile network

communications, a Ka-Band reflectarray will be highly relevant because of the overlap in

frequency band.

The reflectarray is widely used on satellite due to its ease of fabrication and installation on

flat surfaces as opposed to a parabolic dish reflector antenna, while providing high gain. Unlike

the parabolic dish reflector antenna that uses physical curvature to compensate for the phase

difference, the reflectarray antenna uses an array of phasing elements to perform such a function.

For this project, a 28 GHz reflectarray was designed and fabricated with high gain and aperture

efficiency. In this project, CST Microwave Studio (CST WMS) suite is used to design and simulate

the reflectarray antenna. CST MWS is a specialized tool for 3D electromagnetic simulation. It

provides an insight into the EM characteristics of the high frequency (HF) designs [1].

The reflectarray design is split into two parts: the element design and the system design. At

the element design stage, the main goal is to derive a phasing element (commonly known as the

unit cell) with the ability to achieve 360°phase variation, with gentle dimension to phase change

and minimal return loss. The dimension to phase transition must not be too drastic as there are

limitations on the manufacturing precision. A unit cell phase can be tuned by varying the size of

the element, by adding a delay line or rotating. Having a bad element design (inadequate phase

variation and high return loss) will result in low-gain. The system design stage is where the position

1
of the feed is considered: offset or center feed. The system can also be designed to operate in either

far or near-field depending on its application. To achieve decent efficiency in a reflectarray, the

F/D ratio is typically chosen between 0.7 and 1. However, the F/D ratio largely depends on the

beamwidth of the feed. The F/D ratio is selected to achieve -10 dB radiation taper at the edges of

the reflectarray aperture or by aperture efficiency analysis approach. Hence, the feed also plays a

significant role in a working reflectarray. For this project, a commercially available feed (LB-28-

15) is used.

After the element and system designs are finalized, the entire reflectarray is rendered using

AUTOCAD for automated drawing and passed to CST for simulation. When a satisfactory result

is achieved, the antenna is sent for fabrication where measurement in a microwave

chamber/compact range is performed to validate the design.

The flow of this dissertation is as follows: literature review to cover the important aspect to

designing a reflectarray, element designs to investigate on the different types of element, system

designs to study on the different reflectarray configuration, fabrication and testing of the antenna

to validate the theoretical design. Exploratory works are also carried out in the bonus section on a

dual frequency/band reflectarray. An automated reflectarray design software programmed by the

author to provide a teaching platform for newcomers is also presented.

The end product of this FYP is a working fabricated reflectarray antenna with a gain of 33.94

dB, an aperture efficiency of 57.14% and well-controlled sidelobe level at around -20 dB. It has

been tested and proven in the compact range.

2
1.2 PROJECT FLOWCHART

3
 2 BACKGROUND

2.1 ANTENNA FUNDAMENTALS

An antenna can be thought as a network between circuit and free space as it transforms

electrical signals into electromagnetic signals when it transmits information while transforming

electromagnetic signals back to electrical signals when it is receiving information through free

space as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Antenna as a transition device [2].

Antennas can be categorized into two types: Isotropic and Directional. Examples of Isotropic

antenna will be the Dipole and Monopole antenna. These antennas tend to have a wider beamwidth

and can capture EM signals in an extremely wide angle (usually near 360°), lightweight and simple

to design. However, the disadvantages are the extremely low gain and directivity of the antenna.

Hence, these antennas are unsuitable for far-distance communication as the signals will become

too weak. This is where the directional antenna comes into play. Examples of directional antennas

are Yagi-Uda, aperture, array and reflector antenna.

4
2.2 ANTENNA PARAMETERS

Antenna parameters describe the performance and characteristics of an antenna. They are

usually given to antenna engineers as the design requirement by the client. Key parameters are

defined as below:

2.2.1 Radiation Pattern

A radiation pattern is a graphical representation of the radiation property of the antenna as

a function of space coordinates [2]. Radiation pattern describes how the power is radiated out from

the antenna and the scale is usually in logarithmic scale to highlight extremely small/big values.

Radiation pattern can be plotted in two ways: 3 or 2 dimensional, as shown in Figure 2. Other than

main lobe, the other lobes (known as side-lobes and back-lobe) are undesirable and should be

minimized.

2.2.2 Directivity

Directivity describes how “focused” the antenna is to a specific direction. For example, an

ideal isotropic antenna has a directivity of 1 (0dB) because it is not specifically tuned to

transmit/capture power in a desired direction, but a parabolic dish reflector antenna can have a

directivity as high as 30+ dBi (usually a pencil beam shape). A more formal definition is described

as below:

𝑈𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝐷 = (1)
𝑈𝑎𝑣𝑔

Where 𝑈𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the maximum radiation intensity of the main beam and 𝑈𝑎𝑣𝑔 is the average

radiation intensity over all space.

5
2.2.3 3dB Beamwidth

3dB Beamwidth is also known as Half Power Beamwidth (HPBW) as the 3dB refers to

half. It is defined as the angular separation in which the magnitude of the radiation is reduced to

50%. Another convention that is also used is the First-Null Beamwidth (FNBW), which refers to

angular separation in which the magnitude is zero. This property is usually related to directivity as

smaller beamwidth usually means a very highly directed beam, however this is not always true if

the antenna is badly designed.

2.2.4 Bandwidth

Bandwidth describes the range of frequency that the antenna can operate before it becomes

unacceptable (VSWR > 1.5). The larger the bandwidth, the antenna can operate on a larger

frequency range vice versa.

𝑓𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟
𝐵𝑊𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑 = (2)
𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟

𝑓𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 − 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝐵𝑊𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑 = (3)
𝑓𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟

Bandwidth is an important parameter to the entire RF design because it describes the sensitivity

and tolerance of the antenna to frequency change. The gain might drop a lot with a small change

around its operating frequency if the bandwidth is narrow.

2.2.5 Antenna Efficiency and Gain

Antenna efficiency is the ratio between input power and the output power. The input power

is the power supplied to the antenna and the output power is the power radiated out. If the antenna

can translate 100% of the input power to output power, means the antenna is ideal (lossless), and

hence the antenna efficiency is 100% (which is usually not the case)

6
 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑑
𝜂𝑟𝑎𝑑 = (4)
𝑃𝑖𝑛

The gain of the antenna is related to the antenna efficiency and directivity by:

𝐺 = 𝜂𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝐷 (5)

This gain is usually known as the IEEE gain in simulation software (HFSS or CST). There is also

another gain that is more commonly used which is the realized gain. Contrary to the IEEE gain,

realized gain includes loss from impedance and polarization mismatch. Thus, it is a more accurate

representation of the antenna gain. In this project, realized gain is selected over IEEE gain when

calculating the aperture efficiency of the antenna.

2.2.6 Effective Aperture Area & Aperture Efficiency

Effective Aperture Area is defined as the amount of useful area of the antenna that captures

or transmits the EM waves. For example, if the antenna has a big area, but unable to

transmit/capture the EM wave effectively, this means the effective aperture area of this antenna is

low. Effective Aperture Area, Ae affects the directivity of an antenna directly. Aperture Area is

related to directivity as follows:

4𝜋𝐴𝑒
𝐷 = (6)
𝜆2

Another similar parameter used to measure the performance of the antenna is the aperture

efficiency parameter. Aperture efficiency gives a visualization of the ratio of effective area over

the real physical area. Often realized gain is used in place of directivity in order to find 𝐴𝑒 as it

accounts for matching loss, which is more realistic.

𝐴𝑒 𝐺𝜆2
𝑒𝑎 = = (7)
𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 4𝜋𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙

Aperture efficiency is usually calculated to determine whether an antenna is well designed.

7
2.2.7 Polarization

Polarization refers to the orientation of the electric field oscillations. It can be linear,

circular or elliptical (usually if the circular is not perfect). A circular polarization may be desired

to overcome polarization mismatch (e.g. a receiver antenna may be in the wrong orientation

relative to the polarization of the incident field).

Figure 2: Example of radiation pattern in 2D & 3D [2].

8
 3 LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 REFLECTARRAY ANTENNA

3.1.1 Introduction

The very first reflectarray dates back to as early as 1963, where waveguides were used as

the phasing elements. Its major drawback was its massive size and bulkiness as shown in Figure

3. Reflectarray antenna only gained attention after there was a breakthrough in printed microstrip

antenna where elements were shrunk to a layer of thin metal making this idea more practical and

affordable.

Figure 3: The first reflectarray antenna using waveguide technology [3].

The modern reflectarray can be thought as an amalgamation of both a parabolic reflector

and a microstrip array antenna to counteract their limitations. The parabolic reflector is difficult

and costly to manufacture due to the precision in making the parabolic shape, especially at higher

frequencies. In addition, the parabolic reflector is incapable of achieving wide-angle electronic

beam scanning. [4]

The microstrip array antenna is capable of sweeping wide-angle beam but the phase shifters

required to perform such a function are extremely expensive. The phase shifters making up the

beamformer are inefficient, often requiring amplifiers to compensate for the power loss. In addition,

9
microstrip patch array also suffers energy loss from the feeding network, which can be complicated

to design. [4]

The reflectarray, on the other hand, combines the advantages of both the parabolic reflector

and the array antenna to overcome the challenges of manufacturing the parabolic and need of phase

shifters in an array antenna to attain a low cost but high gain and wide-angle beam-sweeping

antenna.

As the name suggests, the reflectarray antenna is made up of array of elements (in this case

the microstrip patch) that replaces the dish of a parabolic reflector. Its working mechanism is

similar to the parabolic reflector with a feed antenna that will scatter EM waves on the reflector

(made up of microstrip patches) which will be re-radiated back to space in a desired direction/angle.

Figure 4 shows an illustration of the working mechanism of a reflectarray antenna with a parabolic

reflector as comparison.

Figure 4: Comparison between reflectarray and parabolic reflector antenna.

In order to get a better idea, the following analogy can be made: In a parabolic reflector,

the path difference is compensated by the curvature of the reflector dish so that each EM wave

travels at the same distance when it hits the reflector; thus, each EM wave will have the same phase

and is reflected in the same direction. The reflectarray works in similar manner, by introducing

10
phase delay when the EM wave hits the microstrip patch (or phasing element) to compensate for

the path/phase difference [5]. There are various methods to fine tune the phasing element for such

application, which will be discussed in the chapter 3.3.

The advantage of a reflectarray is the ability to achieve good efficiency of more than 50

percent (usually) without the need of power divider that is found in microstrip patch array. In

addition, it is able to scan wide-angle using low-loss electronic phase shifters or by rotating the

elements (if rotational elements are used). Moreover, compared to the parabolic dish, it is much

more portable because the reflectarray aperture is foldable/collapsible and conformal to flat

surfaces. Most importantly, it is cheaper than the parabolic dish since precision manufacturing can

be avoided through printed circuit board (PCB) technology. [4]

However, despite its desirable traits, there are several shortcomings for the reflectarray

antenna. First and foremost is its bandwidth. Since the elements are designed for a specific

frequency, the reflectarray suffers from a narrow bandwidth characteristic. The bandwidth is

limited by two factors: the bandwidth of the phasing elements and the differential spatial phase

delay (refers to Figure 5). [6]

Figure 5: Differential spatial phase delay of reflectarray: phase difference between two paths S1
and S2 from the feed to the reflectarray elements.

11
3.2 ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF REFLECTARRAY

A reflectarray antenna design can be broken down into two parts: the system design and the

element design. The system design stage includes the study of the phase distribution of the

reflectarray and feed position while the element design stage entails the design of phasing elements

to meet the phase compensation needs of the reflectarray.

3.2.1 Phase Shift Distribution

The phase shift distribution plot describes the compensation requirement of each phasing

element. Typically, the phase difference is directly related to the distance between the feed and

element, the further the feed to the element, the more phase difference there is as compared to the

nearest element. The nearest element refers to the element closest to the feed phase center, which

is usually used as the phase reference for other elements.

The position of the feed also greatly affects the gain of the reflectarray antenna. A common

practice will be setting the feed radiation level at the edge of the reflectarray at -10 dB (normalized

to the peak of the feed radiation). However, for this dissertation an analytical approach is used

instead as introduced in [7].

From Figure 6 and Figure 7, the required element phase shift can be derived by adding the

spatial phase from feed phase center to that element, −𝑘0 𝑅𝑖 and the phase shift introduced by the

element. The resulting equation is given in (8).

12
 Figure 6: Geometry of the reflectarray [4].

Figure 7: Visualization of the re-radiated wave.

𝜙(𝑥𝑖 , 𝑦𝑖 ) = −𝑘0 𝑅𝑖 + 𝜙𝑅 (𝑥𝑖 , 𝑦𝑖 ) (8)

The negative sign came from using the 𝑒 𝑗𝜔𝑡 convention. 𝑅𝑖 refers to the distance from the feed

phase center to the element i and 𝜙𝑅 (𝑥𝑖 , 𝑦𝑖 ) refers to the phase that the element introduces.

Next, to scan this collimated beam in any direction (𝜃𝑜 , 𝜙𝑜 ), a progressive phase can be

added to the aperture in the form of:

𝜙𝑝𝑝 = −𝑘0 𝑟⃑𝑖 ∙ 𝑟̂𝑜

𝜙𝑝𝑝 = − 𝑘0 (𝑥𝑖 sin 𝜃𝑜 cos 𝜙𝑜 + 𝑦𝑖 sin 𝜃𝑜 sin 𝜙𝑜 ) (9)

Equating equations 8 and 9, the phase distribution equation is derived:

𝜙𝑅 (𝑥𝑖 , 𝑦𝑖 ) = 𝑘0 (𝑅𝑖 − (𝑥𝑖 cos 𝜙𝑜 + 𝑦𝑖 sin 𝜙𝑜 ) sin 𝜃𝑜 ) (10)

13
 The reflectarray is somewhat similar to the parabolic reflector antenna, but the reflectarray

consists of discrete compensation as such the phase distribution is pixelated unlike the parabolic

reflector which is continuous (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Phases on the aperture with an offset feed and off-broadside beam: (a) spatial delay,
(b) progressive phase, (c) phase distribution on the reflectarray antenna, and (d) phase
distribution on the continuous aperture. [4]
3.2.2 Optimal Focal Length to Diameter Ratio (F/D) by Analytical Methods

The common practice for selecting the F/D of a reflectarray is usually the -10 dB edge taper

of the feed, so that there is a balance between spillover efficiency and illumination efficiency.

There is an analytical approach on determining the F/D of the reflectarray. According to [7], the

feeding beam is assumed to have a normalized power pattern of:

(11)

The shape of the radiation pattern is determined by the 𝑞 value of the feed. The larger the 𝑞 value,

the narrower the beamwidth (see Figure 9).

14
 Next, the radiation pattern of the scattering element is similarly assumed to be given by:

(12)

Most of the time, the 𝑞𝑒 value of the scattering element can be safely assumed to be one.

Figure 9: Radiation pattern for different q.

Spillover efficiency and illumination efficiency are needed to be found first before the
calculation of the theoretical peak aperture efficiency. Spillover efficiency is defined as the ratio
of the power captured by the reflectarray aperture to the total radiated power of the feed, given
mathematically by

(13)

The illumination efficiency is a measure of how close the realized aperture distribution is
to uniform illumination. Mathematically, it is given by

(16)

where Aa is the aperture area and 𝐼(𝑥, 𝑦) is the amplitude distribution over the aperture.

15
 After numerically obtaining the spillover and illumination efficiencies, the aperture

efficiency is a product of the former two efficiencies:

(18)

The three efficiencies are plotted in Figure 10 for a circular reflectarray aperture of

diameter 224.4 mm with a center-fed feed of 𝑞 = 6.4. The optimal F/D in this case is around 0.9.

Although the above analysis is only applicable for center-fed reflectarray, it provides a useful

starting point for offset-fed configurations.

Figure 10: Example of efficiencies vs F/D plot.

16
3.3 PHASE TUNING APPROACHES FOR REFLECTARRAY ELEMENT

The phasing elements are the building blocks of the reflectarray aperture. Without a good

phasing element design, one can expect the reflectarray to be extremely inefficient with low gain.

There are three ways to tune the phase of phasing element: adding a delay line to the element,

varying the element size and rotating the element for circular polarized design.

3.3.1 Elements with Phase/Time-Delay Line

In this approach, the incident wave is first captured by the element, then the signal enters

the delay-line, gets reflected at the end of the line, re-enters the element and is re-radiated [5]. The

idea is demonstrated in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Working mechanism of the Phase-Delay line.

The phase shift is proportional to the length of the stub, which can be expressed as

𝜙𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 = 2𝑘𝑙 (19)

where 𝑘 is the propagation constant of the signal along the stub and 𝑙 is the length of the stub. The

equation is quite intuitive, the longer the phase delay because the wave has to travel a longer

distance.

The advantage of this element is the ease of fabrication with current printed circuit

technology. The design is also fairly straightforward. However, the flaws include the

17
accommodation of the stubs, as there may be insufficient space on the surface; the stubs may

introduce spurious radiation. Since the wave has to travel along the stub (more often than not is

not lossless), there will be deterioration in electrical performance. However, there are several ways

to overcome some of these challenges. One way is by having multiple layers, one for the patches

and one for the stubs. This technique is often known as the Aperture-Coupled Patches with slots

and lines of variable length. [8] [9] This idea is demonstrated in Figure 12, where there are element

layer and phase shifting layer.

Figure 12: Aperture Coupled Patches with slots and delay line [8].
The delay line can be broken down into two parts: stub and variable length delay line. The

stub is used for matching impedance to the patch while the variable length delay line will be

responsible for shifting the phase. Due to the additional layer, there will be space for the stubs. In

addition, the phase response is relatively linear as compared to the variable size patch and the

spurious radiation from the stubs is absorbed and eliminated by the ground plane. However, it is

bulkier due to multiple layers.

3.3.2 Varying Element Size

Elements of different size will operate at different resonance frequency. Making use of this

property, each element can be phase tuned by varying the size as shown in Figure 13. In an ideal

18
case, a single resonance can provide a complete cycle of 360°but in reality, the common practice

is to use more than one resonant element to achieve a complete cycle. Typically, for a substrate

with thickness of less than 1/10 wavelength, a phase shift above of 300°is attainable for a single

resonant element [4].

Figure 13: Example of reflectarray using varying element size.

Phasing element with less than a full cycle is usually undesirable because it is unable to

fully compensate for the phase difference, resulting in a less focused beam and a lower gain

reflectarray. There are a few strategies to mitigate this shortcoming. Stacking several layers of

patches is one way to create an element with a complete cycle. This well-known technique is

commonly known as multi-layering as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Multilayer structure – 3 layers (left) [9]; Multilayer element – 2 layers (right).
Another way is to introduce multiple resonating elements [10] in the design. Instead of

using only a single patch, introducing a square ring surrounding the square patch or using double

19
ring elements can help to achieve a full cycle (see Figure 15 for examples). In an ideal case, one

element can achieve 360°and two elements can achieve 720°. However, in reality, the phase

variation achieved is lesser than the ideal case.

To achieve phase linearity and lower sensitivity to dimension change, a thicker substrate

can be used. This is particularly important, as the fabrication of the antenna may not be able to

meet the strict demand for the physical dimension of the elements. The next chapter will investigate

and experiment with various element designs.

Figure 15: Single resonating element (left); Double resonating element (middle); Triple
resonating element (right).

20
 4 REFLECTARRAY – ELEMENT DESIGN

In this project, the element size is 4.4  4.4 mm or 2/5 (within the 1/2 – 1/3 λ range [4]) at

28 GHz. Rogers4003C, a commercially available substrate, is used as the substrate. There are a

few design constraints such as having the smallest space and width at 0.1mm due fabrication

precision limitation.

4.1 SQUARE PATCH ELEMENT – SINGLE RESONATOR

This is the most basic element for reflectarray where variable square patches are used to

fine-tune the phase of each element as shown in Figure 16. The length of the patch varies from 1

to 3.57 mm. A simple square patch element is expected to have less than 360°of phase shift. In

reality, the single patch element is rarely used. However, we will used it as a reference for other

elements to show the importance of a full cycle phase variation.

Figure 16: Model for the single patch element.

The element is simulated in the CST software where for the incident angle varying from 0°

to 60°. At each incident angle, the dimension R1 is varied to determine the reflection phase and

the reflection loss. The results are shown in Figure 17. As expected, a single patch resonator

element is unable to provide a full cycle of 360°. At = 0°, the maximum phase variation is around

250° only. The following sections will explore more element designs that will overcome the

challenge faced by the single resonator.

21
 Figure 17: Phase Shift vs R1 (left); Return Loss vs R1 (right) for single patch element.

4.2 SQUARE PATCH ELEMENT – MULTI-LAYERING

As discussed in the previous chapter, multi-layering is one of the most common ways to

increase the phase shift. By stacking the elements on top of one another, we can effectively increase

the phase shift by approximately two times. This is the most convenient method to increase the

phase shift, as it does not require complicated design.

Figure 18 illustrates the “2-layer element” which is constructed by stacking up the square

patch element seen in Section 4.1. As there are two layers, the design can be thought as having

two resonators per element; hence, it should be able to provide more than 360°phase variation as

shown in Figure 19. Even though the phase variation is over 400°, this design is not feasible for

usage. When R1 is around 2.2 to 2.4, the phase is extremely sensitive to dimensional change. Some

dimensional deviation will result in a big difference in phase shift. This will require a very strict

precision demand on the fabrication of the reflectarray antenna.

22
 Figure 18: Model for 2-layer square patch element.

Figure 19: Phase Shift vs R1 (left); Return Loss vs R1 (right) for 2-layer square patch element.
Since this element can achieve such wide range of phase variation, there are a few ways to

make the phase gradient gentler at the cost of phase range. The first way is to use thicker substrates.

A common practice that is similar to this approach is to use air gap instead of thickening the

substrate to cut cost. Some designers will use foam as a substitute to air gap as they have similar

properties.

Another way is by making the sizes of top and bottom patch different. In this example,

different proportions will be explored in order to find the optimal proportion for the design (see

Figure 20). The reason why this method will work is that when the top and bottom have a different

proportion, they will have different resonating frequencies. If the top and bottom are exactly the

same size, they will have the same frequency response, which in turn amplify the resonating

frequency change causing the steep phase gradient as seen above.

23
 Figure 20: Model of 2-layer square patch with different size ratio. R2 = K1×R1 & Phase shift
with different K1 @ theta = 0°.
Based on to the simulation results in Figure 20, K1 = 0.8 becomes too steep after R1 =

2.5mm. For K1 = 0.6, even though the gradient is quite gentle, it barely reaches 360°. Hence,

K1=0.7 with 360°phase range and a gentle sloop is the most suitable choice for this design.

Compared to the previous design which had the same size for both top and bottom layers,

this is a much better design with good linearity and slow changing phase variation while achieving

a full cycle. Multilayer reflectarray is more common in situation where the elements are not

possible to fabricate because it is too small as in mm-wave designs.

Figure 21 shows the phase and loss of the latest design for different incident angles up to

60°. The phase range remains more than 360°for all incident angles. The loss is worst for incident

angle of 60°, but it is still less than 1 dB.

24
Figure 21: Phase Shift vs R1 (left); Return Loss vs R1 (right) for 2-layer square patch element @
K1 = 0.7.

4.3 SINGLE LAYER MULTI-RESONATING ELEMENT (CHOSEN)

As shown previously, having multiple resonating elements can help to achieve a full cycle.

The single layer multi-resonating element approach involves an element where two or more

resonators are printed on a single layer as seen in Figure 15. Most reflectarray designers favour

this approach as it only requires a single layer, making the design less costly than the multi-layer

design while achieving a similar outcome. The combinations are usually: double square rings,

double circular rings or a ring surrounding a patch.

The square ring patch design is able to achieve a phase shift of more than 360°. It has two

degree of freedom, the relative size of the inner patch, the width of the outer ring. This section will

explore the different dimensionality of the double square ring patch to derive the optimized

parameters for the phasing element (see Figure 22).

From Figure 23, K1=0.6 is selected as K1 = 0.4 is definitely out due to its insufficient phase

shift and K1 = 0.5 barely made it. K1 = 0.7 has too steep a gradient for R1 between 2 to 3 mm @

K2 = 0.2.

25
 For K2, any choice of the three values in Figure 23 is acceptable as the three curves are

quite similar @ K1 = 0.6. K2 = 0.1 is chosen due to the fabrication precision limitation. If

K2=0.075 is used, the smallest W will be 0.075 mm, which is beyond the fabrication limit of 0.1

mm. For K2 = 0.125, the gradient is slightly steeper than K2 = 0.1.

Figure 22: Model of square ring patch element: R2 = K1×R1, W = K2×R1.

Figure 23: Varying K1 @ K2 = 0.1 (left); Varying K2 @ K1 = 0.6 (right), Both @ theta = 0°.

Figure 24 shows phase and loss variation for the selected design. The phase response over

incident angles is acceptable while the return loss is negligible (less than 0.4 dB). Compared to the

multi-layer element, this single-layer element generally has a gentler gradient especially for 0°

incidence angle. From the fabrication perspective, it is cheaper to fabricate a single-layer PCB and

26
is also easier to assemble. Overall, after exploring the options, the multi-resonant element is the

most suitable for this project and will be chosen as the representative element.

Figure 24: Phase Shift vs R1 (left) ; Return Loss vs R1 (right) for square ring patch element @
K1 = 0.6, K2 = 0.1.

27
 5 REFLECTARRAY – CENTER FEED DESIGN

5.1 SYSTEM DESIGN – PYRAMIDAL HORN THEORY

The knowledge behind creating a pyramidal horn is not required in this project because in

order to cut cost, commercially available horn in the lab is used instead hence designing one is

optional. However, there are times when the designer has to create his/her pyramidal horn to fit

into the reflectarray design and some horns may not be available and has to be fabricated from

scratch. This section will explore the theory of pyramidal horn design.

The characteristics of a horn antenna can be adjusted using the following parameters: start point

(a, b), end point (a1, b1) and length of horn antenna (ph & pe) as shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25: Pyramidal horn and coordinate system [2].

The gain of the horn antenna can be expressed as

1 4𝜋 2𝜋
𝐺0 = 2
(𝑎1 𝑏1 ) ⋍ 2 √3𝜆𝜌ℎ √2𝜆𝜌𝑒 (20)
2𝜆 𝜆

Equation 20 is further manipulated into the following:

2
2
𝑏 𝐺0 3 1 𝑎 𝐺02 1
(√2𝜒 − ) (2𝜒 − 1) = ( √ − ) ( 3 − 1) (21)
𝜆 2𝜋 2𝜋 √𝜒 𝜆 6𝜋 𝜒

where
𝜌𝑒
= 𝜒 (22)
𝜆

28
 𝜌ℎ 𝐺02 1
= ( )
𝜆 8𝜋 3 𝜒

Equation 21 is also known as the horn-design equation.

The first step is to find the value of 𝜒 which satisfies equation 21. The starting value for the

𝐺0
iteration is 𝜒(𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑎𝑙) = 2𝜋√2𝜋 and will stop when 𝜒 is found. Using this 𝜒 value, 𝜌𝑒 and 𝜌ℎ can be

found with equation 22.

The values of 𝑎1 and 𝑏1 can be found using the following formula (equation 23):

𝐺0 3
𝑎1 = √3𝜆𝜌ℎ = √ 𝜆
2𝜋 2𝜋𝜒
(23)

𝑏1 = √2𝜆𝜌𝑒 = √2𝜒𝜆

Values of Pe and Ph (length of the horn) can be calculated using:

1/2
𝜌ℎ 2 1
𝑃ℎ = (𝑎1 − 𝑎) [( ) − ]
𝑎1 4
(24)
2 1/2
𝜌𝑒 1
𝑃𝑒 = (𝑏1 − 𝑏) [( ) − ]
𝑏1 4

Regarding about the G0 value, the higher the G0 value, the smaller the beamwidth of the horn,

hence the magnitude at the edge will also be reduced. However, the equations are not perfect and

still requires a lot of tweaking before getting the desired radiation pattern. There is an algorithm

for horn antenna design that is written in MATLAB in [2].

5.2 SYSTEM DESIGN – LB-28-15 FEED

This project will be using a commercially available 26.5 – 40.0 GHz standard gain horn

antenna from A- Info: LB-28-15 [11]. This horn is suitable for this project as it has a q value of

29
6.4 hence the beamwidth is not too narrow or wide and it operates in the Ka-Band. The horn will

be used in the C Type configuration as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26: LB-28-15 schematic drawing [11].

The horn is modelled in CST using the schematic drawing given by [11]. To check whether

the model is drawn correctly, there is a sample radiation pattern provided by the manufacturer for

the frequency @ 28 GHz to check against the CST simulated radiation pattern in Figure 27.

Comparing the datasheet radiation pattern and CST simulated result, the radiation pattern is more

or less the same, but the most important thing is that the beamwidth is similar, as this will affect

the F/D analysis later.

30
 Figure 27: LB-28-15 radiation pattern a) Datasheet [11] ; b) CST simulated result.

Figure 28: 3D radiation pattern of the LB-28-15 & q value for LB-28-15.

The directivity of the horn can be computed by

(25)

where U(θ,ϕ) is from (11). This equation is solved in MATLAB and plotted for a range of q values

as shown in Figure 28. The LB-28-15 pyramidal horn is found to have a q-value of 6.4. In addition,

it is found that the phase center of LB-28-15 is at 1.861 mm away from the aperture opening.

31
 The next step is to find out the optimal position for the pyramidal horn feed. Often, designers

will use -10 dB taper for their design as it is able to strike a good balance between the spillover

and illumination efficiency. But for this dissertation, an analytical approach is used to calculate

the optimal feed position.

5.3 REFLECTARRAY F/D AND PHASE DISTRIBUTION

Before calculating the F/D ratio, the reflectarray size has to be determined first. To avoid a

reflectarray that is too bulky to test, the number of elements is chosen to be 51×51, giving a

diameter of 51×4.4 mm = 224.4 mm. The overall physical size will be acceptable and at the same

time achieve good gain. Using (13), (16) and (18), where D=224.4mm and q=6.4, the following

plot in Figure 29 is obtained. According to Figure 29, the peak efficiency is at around an F/D of

0.9. Hence, the pyramidal horn’s phase center will be placed at 201.96mm (224.4 * 0.9) directly

above the center of the reflectarray.

The phase-shift distribution plot is required to calculate the amount of phase-shift needed for

each element to direct the beam in a desired direction. Using (10), the required phase of each cell

on the reflectarray is computed via a MATLAB script. A phase distribution of the reflectarary is

shown in Figure 30. The plot on the right is after taking modulus of 360°of the plot on the left.

32
 Figure 29: Theoretical F/D plot for D = 224.4mm & q = 6.4.

Figure 30: Center feed a) Raw phase distribution plot; b) Normalized phase distribution plot by
360°.

5.4 SYSTEM DESIGN – ELEMENT MAPPING

The mapping process is to determine the physical dimension for the element design

corresponding to its desired phase. The best dimension determination is found using the spline

function in MATLAB. Although the 0°incident angle phase curve can be used to determine all

33
the element dimensions, it is preferable and more accurate to use the phase curve corresponding

closest to the actual incident angle at the element.

Figure 31: (a) Dataset categorization; (b) Finalized dimension mapping.

Figure 31(a) shows a section of the reflectarray grouped into different incident angle bins for

dimension mapping. As the element moves away from the center of the reflectarray, the incident

angle deviates from 0°. Hence, a different phase curve corresponding to the incident angle has to

be used for dimension mapping. Figure 31(b) shows the finalized dimensions for the element

generated from the relevant phase curve.

5.5 SYSTEM DESIGN – AUTOCAD SCRIPT AUTOMATION

Drawing 2000+ elements manually is not an easy feat. Hence, there must be some

automation to make the task more efficient. Firstly, MATLAB is utilized to churn out all necessary

results that includes the dimensions and coordinates of the elements in a tabular format (Matrix).

Next, MATLAB is used to print out the commands in SCR format that is compatible with the

AUTOCAD scripting format. The AUTOCAD will run the SCR file to create a 2D surface of the

reflectarray elements before the result is exported as DXF format for CST to import. Since the

34
imported DXF format is a 2D surface, the substrates and ground plane have to be added. The horn

feed (from the previous section) is also imported to complete the reflectarray simulation model.

Figure 32 summarizes the automation process.

Figure 32: Element drawing automation process.

5.6 SIMULATION RESULT

Fortunately, there are ways to simulate the reflectarray more efficiently in CST by making use

of the symmetry property function. For center-fed case, using symmetry in the XZ and YZ planes

means the simulation time can be cut down by up to four times. Following the TEM convention

for the horn, the symmetry planes are as shown in Figure 33.

35
 Figure 33: Symmetry planes for center-fed reflectarray.

5.6.1 Square Ring Patch Element Design

Figure 34 and Figure 35 show the radiation patterns for the center-fed reflectarray with square ring

patch element design.

Figure 34: 3D radiation pattern for the square ring patch element design @ 28GHz.

36
 Figure 35: 2D radiation pattern for the square ring patch element design @ 28GHz.

The realized gain is 34.24 dB and the 3-dB beamwidth 3°. The radiation pattern is a pencil

beam with a very small beamwidth. The aperture efficiency of this reflectarray design is 61.3%,

which is acceptable for this type of antenna. The sidelobe level in the E-plane (=90°) is -19.6 dB

while at H-plane (=0°) is -21 dB.

From Figure 36, the reflectarray has a useable 1-dB bandwidth from 26.5 to 29.5 GHz, or

about 5.36%. This value is typical of most reflectarrays.

37
 Figure 36: Maximum Realized Gain vs Frequency for square ring patch element.
5.6.2 Square Patch Comparison

In order to better understand why having a full cycle phase shift element is important, a

reflectarray using the single layer square patch element is also simulated. Figure 37 and Figure 38

show the radiation patterns for the single layer square patch reflectarray.

Figure 37: 3D radiation pattern for the single patch element design @ 28GHz.

38
 Figure 38: 2D radiation pattern for the single patch element design @ 28GHz.
The realized gain of this reflectarray is 33.5 dB which is slightly lower than 34.24 dB for

the square ring patch reflectarray. Its 3-dB beamwidth is 3°, which is the same as the former design

since the beamwidth is a function of the aperture. The aperture efficiency of this square patch

reflectarray design is 52%, which is 9% lower than the square ring patch reflectarray. The sidelobe

levels of the square patch reflectarray in the E-plane and H-plane are -23.3 dB and -22.3 dB,

respectively. These levels are about 3.7 and 1.3 dB lower than that of the square ring patch

reflectarray. Similar to the square ring patch element design, the square patch design (see Figure

39) has about 5.4% (1-dB) bandwidth.

It is expected that the square patch will have a lower gain compared to the ring patch

elements as the square patch does not have the sufficient phase shift to completely compensate for

the phase difference (refer to chapter 3.1). The square patch can only compensate up to around 260

degrees at 0°incidence. To minimize the phase discrepancy, the phase mapping is centered at

around 180°to compensate for the middle phase range, with the maximum and minimum phases

39
compensated by the biggest/smallest element. However, the square patch version did very well

against the square ring patch element model as it only lose out 0.74 dB even with its simple element

design.

Figure 39: Maximum Realized Gain vs Frequency for single patch element.
5.6.3 Comparing to a Center Fed Parabolic Reflector Antenna

This section will compare the performance of the parabolic reflector and a reflectarray. Unlike

the reflectarray, the parabolic reflector does not compensate the phase difference with elements.

Instead, it compensates by the physical curvature so that the phase compensation is continuous

instead of discrete as in a reflectarray. The same pyram idal horn (LB-28-15) is also placed at the

same position for the parabolic reflector at 0.9 F/D as shown in Figure 42. The diameter is also

224.4mm to match the reflectarray size.

The following paragraphs provide some theory related to the parabolic reflector. The equation

of the parabola is as follows in 𝑥𝑧-plane:

40
 (26)

where F is the focal length and D is the diameter of the parabolic reflector (see Figure 40).

Figure 40: Illustration of parabola with defining parameters [12].

The diameter (D) and focal length (F) are related by the following two equations:

(27)

Using CST macro function (see Figure 41), the parabola can be simply be drawn out by inputting

the parameters, where D = 224.4mm and the focal length is 0.9 * 224.4mm (the F/D from the

reflectarray parameters).

41
 Figure 41: Parabolic reflector design window.

Figure 42 and Figure 43 show the radiation patterns for the parabolic reflector antenna. The

realized gain is 35 dB and the 3-dB beamwidth is 3°. The aperture efficiency is 73%, which is

normal for a parabolic reflector antenna. The sidelobe levels in the E-plane and H-plane are -22.5

dB and -21.4 dB, respectively. The sidelobe levels are below -20 dB for both planes.

Figure 42: 3D radiation pattern for the parabolic bowl reflector antenna @ 28GHz.

42
 Figure 43: 2D radiation pattern for the parabolic bowl reflector antenna @ 28GHz.

Not surprisingly, the parabolic reflector antenna’s performance is superior over the

reflectarray antenna. Its efficiency of 73% is more than 10% higher than the square ring patch

reflectarray (61.3%). One reason is that the phase compensation in the reflectarray antenna is

discrete whereas it is continuous in the parabolic reflector antenna (refer to Figure 8d). In addition,

the parabolic reflector is just pure metal, so that there is no dielectric loss.

Unlike the reflectarray antenna, the bandwidth of the parabolic reflector antenna is not limited

by the frequency of the incident wave. From (26) and (27), frequency is not a parameter in the

design of the parabolic reflector. According to Figure 44, it can be quite misleading that as the

frequency increases, the gain increases. Theoretically, the parabolic reflector has infinite

bandwidth, but the feed’s finite bandwidth will eventually limit the increase in the gain of the

parabolic reflector antenna. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the LB-28-15 horn at different

frequency.

43
 Figure 44: Maximum Realized Gain vs Frequency for parabolic bowl reflector antenna.

Table 1: Frequency vs Gain of LB-28-15 horn antenna [11].

Overall, the properties of the reflectarray antenna are quite similar to the parabolic reflector

antenna except for the bandwidth. Although its aperture efficiency is inferior compared to that of

the parabolic reflector antenna, the reflectarray is easy to fabricate and can be installed on any flat

surfaces. In addition, it is also collapsible unlike the parabolic reflector.

44
 6 REFLECTARRAY – OFFSET FEED DESIGN

In the previous configuration, the biggest flaw in the center-fed reflectarray antenna is the

aperture blockage by the feed. The effect will become even more prominent when the supporting

structures of the feed are also included. The undesirable effects of aperture blockage are increased

sidelobe level and reduction in antenna gain. These effects will worsen if the aperture blockage is

increased.

In Figure 45(a), the aperture blockage is a function of D0 / D where D0 is the blockage diameter

and D is the aperture diameter. If this blockage ratio is lesser than 0.2, the blockage will not affect

the radiation pattern significantly, as seen in the simulated results for the center-fed reflectarray in

Chapter 5 (note that the supporting structure of the feed has not been accounted for).

Figure 45: Aperture blockage in front‐fed reflectarray systems: (a) symmetric, (b) offset [4].
An offset feed configuration does not result in an increased gain but a reduced gain. As seen

in Figure 45(b), even for the same physical aperture, the projected aperture is smaller. Nevertheless,

this is still a good trade-off as it totally eliminates aperture blockage which can be beneficial for

large aperture.

45
6.1 FEED POSITION & PHASE DISTRIBUTION

In this study, the same F/D ratio of 0.9 is used. The geometry of the offset-fed reflectarray is

shown in Figure 46. Note that the feed is not totally offset to the point where there is zero aperture

blockage.

Figure 46: Geometry of the offset configuration.

Using (10), the phase distribution plots are obtained as shown in Figure 47 for the desired

beam direction at (0°, 0°). Similarly, the element mapping is done and drawn in CST for simulation.

Note that the element used here is the square ring patch element. As this is an offset configuration,

the element on the far side away from the horn will have a steeper incidence angle than the one

nearer to the feed. From Figure 48, the farthest elements have an incidence angle of more than 40°,

which was not the case for the center-fed configuration.

46
 Figure 47: Offset feed a) Raw phase distribution plot, b) Normalized phase distribution plot by
360°.

Figure 48: Dataset categorization for offset.

Since the reflectarray is now only symmetrical in one plane (YZ) (see Figure 49), the

runtime is longer than that for the center-fed configuration. In addition, as the time-domain solver

in CST cannot handle a “tilted” port, the waveguide section of the horn has an extension where its

end-face is parallel to the XY plane (see Figure 50).

Figure 50 and Figure 51 show the radiation patterns of the offset-set fed reflectarray

antenna. The realized gain is 33.94 dB and the 3-dB beamwidth in both planes are 3°. The aperture

efficiency of this reflectarray design is 57.14%, which is slightly lesser than the center-fed

configuration (61.3%). The lower efficiency in this case can be attributed to blockage by the feed

47
as well as the illumination and spillover effects. The sidelobe levels in the E-plane and H-plane

are -22 dB and -20.9 dB, respectively. The bandwidth of the offset-fed configuration is also similar

to the center-fed configuration at around 5.4% as shown in Figure 52.

Figure 49: Symmetry planes for offset-fed reflectarray.

Figure 50: 3D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design - offset fed configuration
@ 28GHz.

48
 Figure 51: 2D radiation pattern for the square ring patch element design - offset fed
configuration @ 28GHz, E-plane (top), H-plane (bottom).

Figure 52: Maximum Realized Gain vs Frequency for offset fed reflectarray.
Comparing the sidelobe levels, the offset-fed case performs better than the center-fed case

although it is not very significant. Furthermore, the effect due to the supporting structure of the

feed in both cases has not been taken into account.

49
 Figure 53 and Figure 54 show the radiation patterns when the supporting structure for the

center-fed square ring patch reflectarray is included. The sidelobes in the H-plane has significantly

increased from -21 dB to -16.4 dB. Moreover, the gain has fallen from 34.2 dB to 33.5 dB. These

degradations are the reasons for using an offset configuration.

Figure 53: 3D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design center fed with structure
@28GHz.

Figure 54: 2D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design center fed with structure
@28GHz.

50
6.2 OFFSET CONFIGURATION WITH TILTED BEAM

Another common configuration when engineers design offset-fed configuration is to introduce

a “direction” to the main beam. Instead of the usual (0°, 0°) direction, the main beam is reflected

in a mirror-like fashion with respect to feed angle as shown in Figure 55. In this offset-fed tiled-

beam configuration, where the beam is directed to the opposite side of the feed, there is even less

aperture blockage.

Using (10) with (𝜃𝑏 = 17°, 𝜙𝑏 = 0°) to approximately match the “reflection” angle, we

obtain the phase distribution in Figure 56. The phase distribution is very similar to that of the

center-fed case. However, upon closer examination, the right side is more “squeezed” (around 3

rings) while the left side seems to be more “expanded” (around 2 rings). The reason is that the

phase transition on the right side is much steeper compared to the left side. Another observation is

that the “center” has shifted from the right to left.

Figure 55: Geometry of the offset configuration for titled beam.

51
 Figure 56: Offset feed with tilted beam @ 17°phase distribution.
Figure 57 and Figure 58 show the radiation patterns for the offset-fed tilted-beam

reflectarray. The realized gain is 33.7 dB and directed at 𝜃 = 17°. The aperture efficiency is 54.1%,

which is slightly less than that of the offset-set boresight beam configuration (57.14%) because

the projected aperture is smaller. The sidelobe levels in the =90°plane (or E-plane) is -21.6 dB,

and -24.1 dB for the conical cut for 𝜃 = 17°.

Figure 57: 3D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design - offset fed with tilted
beam at -17°@ 28GHz.

52
Figure 58: 2D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design - offset fed with tilted
beam at -17°@ 28GHz.

53
 7 REFLECTARRAY – WITH A SPLASH PLATE FEED

Using a splash plate feed is common for a parabolic reflector antenna because it is easier to

install. Unlike the horn antenna, the splash plate is made of a waveguide and a reflector “blocking”

the other end of the waveguide to reflect the wave towards the reflecting aperture (can think of it

as a double reflector antenna). Designing a splash-plate requires many iterations as there is no

standard way to designing one [13]. However, there are some general guidelines to follow. The

splash plate is used in the following manner as shown in Figure 59.

Figure 59: Visualization of the splash plate feed configuration.

Generally, a splash plate feed is not as efficient as a feed horn. However, it is easier to install

and has a lower aperture blockage [13] as it can be designed not to have a supporting structure. In

addition, the goal of using splash plate is usually to reduce the F/D for a lower profile antenna.

7.1 DESIGN APPROACH FOR A SPLASH PLATE

The flat splash plate can be designed using the Geometrical theory of diffraction (G.T.D)

model. Since the reflector is in front of the feed and assuming the reflector is ideal, we can mirror

the feed to the other side to predict how the signal is being reflected as shown in Figure 60. Using

this property, the conventional feed design approach can be used.

54
 Figure 60: G.T.D Model [13].

According to [13], ℎ should be about 4 λ, L about 2 λ, and the waveguide about 0.8 λ wide.

However, these guidelines give only the “basic” shape. Fine-tuning is still required to fit the

reflectarray design.

The flat reflector of the splash plate is not good enough due to insufficient matching from

the waveguide to the reflector to the free space, resulting in very low efficiency. In order to

improve matching, a pointy tip and a dielectric (usually PTFE) is added at the reflecting end to

achieve a better match (see Figure 61) [13]. The process takes time and intuition to produce a

decent splash plate.

Using an existing 10 GHz splash plate design, some scaling (to 28 GHz) and fine-tuning

are done to meet the reflectarray design criteria. Figure 62 shows the resultant radiation pattern

after fine-tuning. From this pattern, the beamwidth corresponds to a pyramidal horn antenna with

a 𝑞 value of 0.5 and a phase center at 6.562mm above the reflector of the splash plate.

55
 Figure 61: Geometry of the designed splash plate.

Figure 62: Radiation pattern of the splash plate.

It is quite obvious that with such a wide beamwidth, the focal point has to be lowered to

illuminate the reflectarray aperture effectively. However, the peak of the F/D plot is lower than

what it was before, which means using such a wide beamwidth feed may not be such a good idea

as the optimal gain will be less compared to using a feed with a narrower beamwidth (compared

to the previous F/D curve, the theoretical gain can more than 70%). Nevertheless, this reflectarray

will be much more compact than the one before as the F/D is around 0.3 (see Figure 63).

56
 Figure 63: F/D plot for the splash plate configuration.
Figure 64 and Figure 65 show the radiation patterns for the splash-plate reflectarray. The

realized gain is 32.6 dB and the 3-dB beamwidth is 3°. The aperture efficiency of this reflectarray

is 42%, which is not as good as all the previous configurations. The sidelobe levels are rather high,

about -17.6 dB in the E-plane and -14.6 dB in the H-plane. The sidelobe levels are higher than in

previous configurations. Beyond the first sidelobe, the subsequent sidelobe level is very low.

Based on its performance, this splash plate reflectarray may not be a suitable. However, it has

a smaller profile which also makes it is more portable. Moreover, this advantage will become more

prominent for larger reflectarray apertures because the splash plate does not require any supporting

structure. It will also scale very well with size. As the funding is limited for this FYP, fabricating

a splash plate is more expensive than buying a ready-made horn.

57
Figure 64: 3D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design with splash plate feed @
28GHz.

Figure 65: 2D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design with splash plate feed @
28GHz.

58
7.2 NARROW BEAMWIDTH SPLASH PLATE

Another way to amalgamate the splash plate into a reflectarray more effectively is to design

a splash plate with a narrower beamwidth to achieve a higher F/D ratio. A narrow beamwidth

splash plate is uncommon because designing one may result in high level of back lobe. However,

using the previous design with a slight twist, the dielectric and matching tip is able to redirect and

reduce the beamwidth with negligible side effect.

Figure 66 shows the splash plate used to generate a narrower beamwidth to illuminate the

reflectarray. Its radiation pattern is shown in Figure 67. The pattern corresponds to a pyramidal

horn antenna with a 𝑞 value of 4.5. Compared to the previous design, the beamwidth has decreased

significantly from 178°to 80°(-10 dB beamwidth average).

Figure 66: Geometry of the narrow beamwidth splash plate.

59
 Figure 67: Radiation pattern of the narrow-beamwidth splash plate.
With the q value, the theoretical efficiency is significantly improved from the measly 57%

to 73.9% as shown in Figure 68. With a beamwidth of 80°, the splash plate has to be placed higher

than before with F/D of about 0.7.

Figure 68: F/D plot for the narrow beamwidth splash plate configuration.
Figure 69 and Figure 70 show the radiation patterns for the new splash-plate reflectarray. The

realized gain is 33.9 dB, higher than the 32.6 dB in the previous design. The 3-dB beamwidth

remains at 3° as expected. The aperture efficiency of the new reflectarray design is 56.6%

60
compared to 43% in the previous design. The aperture efficiency is almost on par with the offset

feed design. The sidelobe levels are -13.5 dB and -16.5dB n the E-plane and H-plane, respectively.

Although there is significant improvement in the gain, the sidelobe levels are still quite similar

gain to the previous design.

Figure 69: 3D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design with narrow beamwidth
splash plate feed @ 28GHz.

Figure 70: 2D radiation pattern for square ring patch element design with narrow beamwidth
splash plate feed @ 28GHz.

61
 8 FABRICATION & MEASUREMENT RESULTS

After exploring and assessing the various designs, the selected configuration for fabrication

and testing is the offset square ring patch design with boresight main beam (Chapter 6.1). The

support structure is drawn in CST and sent for 3D printing (see Figure 71). The reflectarray

aperture is sent for PCB fabrication.

Figure 71: Model of the reflectarray with the holding structure.

The support structure is designed with a lot of “gaps”. Firstly, the cost of 3D printing is not

based on complexity but material. Secondly, the gaps will reduce reflections from the structure

although it has a low reflective index (plastic material). There are also screw holes used to hold

reflectarray in place. Plastic screws are used in place of metallic ones because metallic screws have

high reflective index. The fabricated antenna is as shown in Figure 72.

The fabricated reflectarray antenna was tested in a compact range. The boresight is carefully

calibrated to achieve accurate result. The measurement used 0.1°step angle and 0.1 GHz step

frequency from 26 to 31 GHz, measuring along the E-plane.

The measured radiation pattern is shown in Figure 73. The measured result agrees with the

simulated result quite closely, albeit with slightly higher sidelobe on both sides. Note that the

62
simulation does not consider the holding structure of the reflectarray. The maximum gain is also

slightly lower (by ~ 1dB) than the simulated result.

Figure 72: Fabricated reflectarray antenna tested in microwave chamber (left) & compact range
(right).

Figure 73: Measured vs simulated result @ 28GHz.

The measured gain-bandwidth performance is compared to the simulation result in Figure

74. Although the gain is lower than the simulation, its 1-dB bandwidth (from 26.4 to 30.7 GHz) of

63
7.53% is greater than the simulated result of 5.93% (from 26.55 to 29.9 GHz). Overall, the

fabricated reflectarray antenna achieved the desired result and goal of this project.

Figure 74: Measured maximum gain over frequencies.

64
9 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

Overall, the entire project has been successful with a working fabricated antenna in the end to

verify against with simulation result. The main take-away of this work is a gain in general

knowledge of how a reflectarray is designed. The thesis had also explored several element designs,

showing the improvement from single to multi-resonating elements; the reflectarray phase

distribution and different feed configuration. In conclusion, the author had comprehensively

covered the core aspect in designing a reflectarray antenna.

Some exploratory work had also been done as shown in the bonus section of this thesis, where

a dual band/frequency reflectarray was studied (which is beyond the scope of this project). The

future work can improve on the design of the dual band/frequency reflectarray.

Lastly, a fully automated reflectarray design software (standalone application) was developed

by the author to provide a teaching platform to people with no experience in creating a reflectarray

of their own. Anybody interested in the software may contact [email protected] to download and

try out the software.

65
 10 BONUS & EXPLORATION WORK

10.1 DUAL FREQUENCY/BAND REFLECTARRAY FOR 5G COMMUNICATION (28/38GHZ)

10.1.1 Introduction

Recently, the reflectarray antennas are being sought after for its reduced mass, volume and

ease of fabrication with high-gain characteristics. However, reflectarray antenna suffers a major

drawback of narrowband performance especially when the reflectarray gets larger in size [5]. The

bandwidth is limited by two factors: the microstrip patch elements and the differential spatial phase

delay [6].

Despite the limitations, the microstrip reflectarray can be adapted for dual-band/frequency

purposes. Several methods have been explored to achieve this function such as stacking multiple

layers of different-sized elements as seen in [14] and using frequency selective surface (FSS) -

backed layers [15] to achieve dual-band characteristics. However, these multi-layering approaches

increase weight, volume and fabrication complexity. Single-layer design involves multiple

elements on the same surface where accommodation constraints are more prominent hence proper

element arrangement is important for this configuration. Several single-layer designs are presented

such as the triband reflectarray using three types of elements in [16] and dual-band reflectarray

using two crossed dipoles of different frequency band in [17].

5G communications are going to be the future inevitably to meet the demand for high data

rate. However, the millimeter-wave frequencies (mm-wave) have propagation limitations due to

high path loss, which lead to very short communication distances. The current industry is looking

into suitable high gain antenna in order to overcome this problem. Reflectarray antennas are

suitable for this application because mm-waves for 5G does not affect the size of the antenna due

to its short wavelength [18]. Moreover, reflectarray antenna has less design complexity and is also

66
more adaptable with shorter wavelength compared to massive MIMO systems. The goal of this

chapter is to present a design that operates on the 28/38 GHz that overlaps with the 5G band.

10.1.2 Element Design

The objective of this section is to design different phasing elements that can co-exists

together on the same surface. Hence, element shape is an important consideration. The 28 GHz

phasing element is a cross-dipole element while the 38 GHz phasing element is a square ring patch

element. The 28 and 38 GHz phasing elements have a grid size of 5mm and 2.5mm respectively.

The element arrangement is described in Figure 75. The elements are printed on a Rogers 4003C

substrate with thickness of 30mil (0.813mm), dielectric constant of 3.55 and loss tangent of 0.0027,

backed by a conducting ground plane. Both the element is within the 0.3~0.5 λ0 range in order to

reduce grating lobes [5]. The 28/38 GHz phasing elements are simulated independently with CST

microwave studio 2018 using the plane wave Floquet mode approach.

Figure 75: Reflecting surface geometry of a single-layer dual-frequency reflectarray antenna.

67
 The proposed element for the 28 GHz phasing element is made up of dipoles with a fixed

thickness of 0.5mm and is arranged in a square lattice with periodicity of 5mm as shown in Figure

76a. The phase variation is controlled by the length of the dipole (L1). The proposed element for

the 38 GHz phasing element is made up of square ring patches, a multi-resonator element.

However, the maximum size (R1) of the square ring patch can only be less than 2mm because

some space has to be reserved for accommodating the dipole. For this paper, the maximum size is

chosen to be 1.8mm to prevent the 28 GHz and 38 GHz phasing elements being too close to one

another, which might lead to increase mutual coupling between the elements. The phase variation

is controlled by the length of the outer square (R1) and has a geometry of R2=K1×R1, w = K2×R1

as shown in Figure 76b, where K1 and K2 are determined to be 0.7 and 0.2 respectively. The

reflection phase versus dimension for the phasing elements are shown in Figure 77(a) and (b).

Both the elements also demonstrate close to a full cycle phase variation.

Figure 76: Geometry of the a) 28 GHz cross dipole & b) 38 GHz square ring patch phasing
element, R2=K1×R1, w=K2×R1.

68
 Figure 77: Reflected phase response versus dimension a) Dipole (L1) & b) Square ring patch
(R1).
10.1.3 System Design

For this section, an offset fed configuration is considered to reduce aperture blockage by

the feed and holding structure. The effect is usually more significant in small reflectarray where

the feed has a similar proportion to the aperture. Aperture blockage will lead to increase in sidelobe

level and reduction in antenna gain. The reflectarray aperture is square shape with side length of

135mm with 27×27 28GHz & 54×54 35GHz elements. It is illuminated by a pyramidal horn with

an offset angle of 29.59°. The horn has a q-value of 11.5 at 38 GHz and 6.4 at 28 GHz. The F/D

value is determined analytically, using the method introduced in [7]. The F/D plot is being plotted

for each q-value in Figure 78. An F/D ratio of 0.9 is chosen. The desired main beam is tilted 30°

away from the boresight of the reflectarray aperture for 28GHz and 0°for 38 GHz. The partial

reason for this configuration is to make sure there is a good distribution between the large and

small elements and to further decrease the mutual coupling (e.g. if both frequencies have the same

desired main beam, most of the bigger elements will be placed in the middle). The phase

distribution curve for both 28 GHz and 38 GHz are shown in Figure 79 and the schematic drawing

of the reflectarray is given in Figure 80.

69
 Figure 78: F/D curve for the proposed design.

Figure 79: Phase distribution curve for a) 28 GHz & b) 38 GHz.

70
 Figure 80: Schematic view of the dual-frequency reflectarray.

10.1.4 Full-wave Simulation Result

The designed reflectarray is analyzed using CST Microwave studio TLM solver. The

simulated radiation patterns at 28 and 38 GHz are plotted along the E-plane as shown in Figure

81a. At 28GHz, the sidelobe levels are -14.5 dB and -21.0 dB, while at 38 GHz the sidelobe levels

are -20.1 and -24.0 dB. Another noticeable trait is at 38GHz, the gain at around 30° is slightly

higher than the other angle probably due to the slight reflection from the 28GHz elements. Other

than its operating frequency, a broadband performance is also accomplished in this design

especially at the higher frequency range where it reaches the Q-band. As the frequency increases,

the gain of an aperture antenna usually also increases, hence it is more appropriate to check the

antenna performance by using aperture efficiency instead. The antenna aperture efficiency and

realized gain are plotted against frequency in Figure 81b. Figure 82 is a 3D radiation pattern plot

for both 28 and 38 GHz.

71
 Figure 81: a) Simulated radiation patterns at 28 GHz and 38 GHz; b) Simulated gain and
aperture efficiency in frequency band.

Figure 82: 3D radiation pattern for both 28GHz and 38GHz stacked together.
A dual-frequency reflectarray is achieved at both 28GHz and 38GHz. The full-wave

simulated result has shown that the gains are 28.08 dB at 28 GHz and 31.04 dB at 38GHz with

decent aperture efficiency of 32.17% and 34.53% respectively. Other than its operating frequency,

the proposed antenna can also be used in Q-Band frequency with a peak aperture efficiency of

43.5% at 42 GHz.

72
10.2 AUTOMATED REFLECTARRAY DESIGN APP

A software was developed as a side-project while doing this FYP. The software can be used

for professional antenna design or a teaching platform to introduce the reflectarray antenna concept

to people with zero experience for this topic. Everything was designed and programmed by the

author. A rough illustration of the software is as shown here:

Figure 83: Graphics user interface of the reflectarray design application.

The author had also used the software to experiment with different kind of reflectarray

configuration and had achieved consistent results. An element library is also given to guide users

on how to format the csv file before feeding it into the reflectarray application. A feed library of

various pyramidal horns is also given to allow users to try out different F/D. MCR script

automation is also provided, if the user does not have AutoCAD. This script will draw in the CST

software directly but at slightly slower speed than importing the dxf format from AutoCAD.

Interactive q value slider was also programmed to let the user play with different q value to see the

change in the theoretical feed model (for q value reference) and F/D plot will also be updated.

73
10.3 RADIATION ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

With recent improvement in personal computer’s computational power, this analysis is

optional. However, at times when simulation software is unavailable or computer does not have

the necessary hardware to compute the radiation pattern, this approach can provide quick insights

to the radiation pattern of the reflectarray. The analysis is based on Array Theory provided by [4].

The main idea behind this concept is to sum up all the element’s radiation. The author has

programmed a tool to predict the radiation of the reflectarray based on the Array Theory. Note that

the prediction does not account for the coupling effect. Figure 84 shows the comparison between

Array Theory and CST simulation for a 27×27 offset-fed reflectarray at 28GHz. Even though, the

prediction does not 100% matched with the CST simulation, the main beam pattern is quite similar.

Unlike the CST simulation, Array Theory prediction takes less than 10 seconds compared to hours.

Figure 84: Array Theory vs CST Simulation radiation pattern.

74
 REFERENCES

[1] Dassault Systemes, "CST - Computer Simulation Technology," [Online]. Available:

https://www.cst.com/products/cstmws.

[2] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory Analysis And Design Fourth Edition, New Jersey: Wiley, 2016.

[3] D. G. Berry, R. G. Malech and W. A. Kennedy, "The reflectarray antenna," IEEE Trans.Antennas
Propagat., Vols. AP - 11, pp. 645-651, 1963.

[4] P. Nayeri, F. Yang and A. Z. Elsherbeni, Reflectarray Antennas: Theory, Designs, and
Applications, Wiley IEEE Press, 2018.

[5] J. Huang and J. A. Encinar, Reflectarray Antennas, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[6] J. Huang, "Bandwidth study of microstrip reflectarray and a novel phased reflectarray concept,"
IEEE AP-S/URSI symposium, pp. 1134-1137, 1998.

[7] A. Yu, F. Yang, A. Z. Elsherbeni, J. Huang and Y. Rahmat-Samii, "APERTURE EFFICIENCY

ANALYSIS OF REFLECTARRAY," MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS,
vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 364-372, 2010.

[8] E. Carrasco, M. Barba and J. Encinar, "Aperture-coupled reflectarray element with wide range of
phase delay," ELECTRONICS LETTERS, vol. 42, no. 12, 2006.

[9] J. Encinar and J. Zornoza, "Broadband design of three-layer printed reflectarrays," IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 1662 - 1664, 2003.

[10] M. E. Bialkowski and K. H. Sayidmarie, "Investigations Into Phase Characteristics of a Single-

Layer Reflectarray Employing Patch or Ring Elements of Variable Size," IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 3366-3372, 2008.

[11] A - INFO, LB-28-15 Datasheet, China: A-INFO.

[12] P. J. Bevelacqua, "The Parabolic Reflector Antenna (Satellite Dish)," Antenna-Theory.com,

[Online]. Available: http://www.antenna-theory.com/antennas/reflectors/dish.php. [Accessed 2019
February 2019].

[13] D.P.S.Malik and G. James, "Splash Plate Feed Design," 5th European Microwave Conference, pp.
41-45, 1975.

[14] C. Han, C. Rodenbeck, J. Huang and K. Chang, "A C/Ka dual frequency dual layer circularly
polarized reflectarray antenna with microstrip ring elements," IEEE Trans Antennas Propag, vol.
52, no. 11, pp. 2871-2876, 2004.

[15] M. R. Chaharmir, J. Shaker and H. Legay, "Dual-band Ka/X reflectarray with broadband loop
elements," Microw. Antennas Propag, vol. 4, pp. 225-231, 2010.

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[16] F. Yang, Y. Kim, J. H. A. Yu and A. E. Elsherbeni, "A Single Layer Reflectarray Antenna for
C/X/Ka," in ICEAA, Italy, 2007.

[17] R. Chaharmir, J. Shaker and M. Cuhaci, "Development of dual-band circularly polarised

reflectarray," Inst. Elect. Eng. Proc., Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 153, no. 1, pp. 49-54, 2003.

[18] M. H. Dahri, M. H. Jamaluddin, M. I. Abbasi and M. R. Kamarudin, "A Review of Wideband

Reflectarray Antennas for 5G Communication," IEEE Access, vol. 5, pp. 17803-17815, 2017.

76
 APPENDIX A – REFLECTARRAY AUTOMATION APP ALGORITHM
Reflectarray Phase Distribution (Snippets)

function RAApertureScript(app)
OpFreq = app.FrequencyHzEditField.Value;
NumElement1axis = app.NumofElementEditField.Value;
ElementSize_mm = app.ElementWidthmmEditField.Value;
Feedpos =
[app.XEditField.Value,app.YEditField.Value,app.ZEditField.Value]; %x,y,z
Radius = ElementSize_mm*NumElement1axis/2;

app.Element = zeros(NumElement1axis,NumElement1axis);
TotalElement = NumElement1axis*NumElement1axis;
app.ElementCoord = zeros(TotalElement,2);
Counter = 1;
XStart = -((floor(NumElement1axis/2))*ElementSize_mm); %1st Element
YStart = ((floor(NumElement1axis/2))*ElementSize_mm);
YSteps = 0;
XSteps = 0;
YCoord = 0;
XCoord = 0;
GridWidth = ElementSize_mm;
Wavelength = 299792458/OpFreq;
WaveNumber = (2*pi)/Wavelength; %K0
PhaseConstant = 0;
%PhaseConstant = 168*pi/180;
%PhaseConstant = -84.01*pi/180;
ElementNum = zeros(TotalElement,2);
app.ElementAngle = zeros(TotalElement,1);

%Direction of the beam

%Since it is all perpendicular to plane hence all 0
theta = app.ThetaEditField.Value * pi/180; %theta0
phi = app.PhiEditField.Value * pi/180; %theta0

for j = 1:1:NumElement1axis
YCoord = YStart - YSteps;
for i = 1:1:NumElement1axis
XCoord = XStart + XSteps;
DistFeed = sqrt((XCoord-Feedpos(1))^2 + (YCoord-Feedpos(2))^2
+ (0-Feedpos(3))^2);
DistFeed = DistFeed*0.001; %Ri in meter
PhaseRA = WaveNumber * (DistFeed - sin(theta) *
(XCoord*0.001*cos(phi) + YCoord*0.001*sin(phi))) + PhaseConstant;
PhaseRA = PhaseRA*(180/pi); %Convert to degree
app.Element(j,i) = PhaseRA;
app.ElementCoord(Counter,1) = XCoord;
app.ElementCoord(Counter,2) = YCoord;

77
 app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) =
acos((Feedpos(3)*0.001)/DistFeed)*180/pi;
ElementNum(Counter,1) =i ;
ElementNum(Counter,2) =j ;
Counter = Counter + 1;
XSteps = XSteps + GridWidth;
end
XSteps = 0;
YSteps = YSteps + GridWidth;
end
PhaseConstant = min(min(app.Element));
app.Element = app.Element - PhaseConstant;
app.Element = rem(app.Element, 360);

end

78
 Reflectarray F/D Calculations (Snippets)

function FDPlot(app)
ElemWidth = app.ElementWidthmmEditField.Value;
NumElem = app.NumofElementEditField.Value;
%F/D Code
%Spillover Efficiency
app.HDRatio = 0.1:0.01:2;
HDLength = length(app.HDRatio);
app.NsMat = zeros(1,HDLength);
D = ElemWidth*NumElem;
q = app.qvalue;
Id = (2*pi)/(2*q + 1);
%Square
for i = 1:1:HDLength
HDR = app.HDRatio(i);
H = HDR*D;
r0 = H;
Pr = @(x,y)
(H./((sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)).^3)).*(((r0^2+(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)).^2-
(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2)).^2)./(2*r0*(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)))).^(2*q));
In = integral2(Pr,-(D/2),(D/2),-(D/2),(D/2),'Method','iterated');
Ns = In/Id;
app.NsMat(i) = Ns;
end
%Illumination Efficiency
%Square
qe = 1;
app.NiMat = zeros(1,HDLength);
for i = 1:1:HDLength
HDR = app.HDRatio(i);
H = HDR*D;
r0 = H;
I_D = @(x,y)
(((H^qe)./(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2).^(1+qe))).*((r0^2+(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)).^2-
(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2)).^2)./(2*r0.*(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)))).^(q)).^2;
Denominator = integral2(I_D,-(D/2),(D/2),-
(D/2),(D/2),'Method','iterated');
I_N = @(x,y)
((H^qe)./(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2).^(1+qe))).*((r0^2+(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)).^2-
(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2)).^2)./(2*r0.*(sqrt(x.^2+y.^2+H^2)))).^(q);
Norminator = (abs(integral2(I_N,-(D/2),(D/2),-
(D/2),(D/2),'Method','iterated')))^2;
Aa = D*D;
Ni = (1/Aa)*(Norminator/Denominator);
app.NiMat(i) = Ni;
end
%Efficiency
app.NMat = app.NsMat.*app.NiMat; end;

79
 Reflectarray Element Mapping (Snippets)

function Mapping(app)
Counter = 1;
UnitPhase = app.ProcessedReport;
Dim = UnitPhase(:,1);
[~,Numplot] = size(UnitPhase);
for i = 2:1:Numplot
DataTheta(:,i-1) = UnitPhase(:,i) - min(UnitPhase(:,i));
end

NumElement1axis = app.NumofElementEditField.Value;
ElementDim = zeros(NumElement1axis,NumElement1axis);
DistributionData = app.Element;

for j = 1:1:NumElement1axis
for i = 1:1:NumElement1axis
if app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 60
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,7),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
elseif app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 50
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,6),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
elseif app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 40
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,5),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
elseif app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 30
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,4),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
elseif app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 20
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,3),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)

80
 Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
elseif app.ElementAngle(Counter,1) > 10
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,2),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
else
Dimension =
spline(DataTheta(:,1),Dim,DistributionData(j,i));
if Dimension < min(Dim)
Dimension = min(Dim);
end
ElementDim(j,i) = Dimension;
end
Counter = Counter + 1;
end
end
app.ElementDim2D = ElementDim;
app.ElementDim1D = ElementDim(:);

end

81
 Reflectarray CAD Scripting for one of the elements (Double Circular)

Dimension = app.ElementDim1D;
Coordinates = app.ElementCoord;
K1 = app.K1EditField.Value;
K2 = app.K2EditField.Value;
NumElement1axis = app.NumofElementEditField.Value;

TotalElement = NumElement1axis*NumElement1axis;
Radius = NumElement1axis*app.ElementWidthmmEditField.Value/2;
f = uifigure('Position',[300 300 400 120]);
d = uiprogressdlg(f,'Title','Scripting in Progress',...
'Indeterminate','on','Cancelable','on');

if app.ScriptFormatSwitch.Value == "DXF"
Script =
fopen('OneStopRA/DoubleCircularRing/DoubleCircular.scr','w');
W = K2*(Dimension(:,1));
OuterRingInner = 2*(Dimension(:,1)-W);
OuterRingOuter = 2*(Dimension(:,1));
InnerRingOuter = 2*K1*(Dimension(:,1));
InnerRingInner = 2*(K1*(Dimension(:,1))-W);

Report = cat(2,Coordinates,Dimension);
Report = cat(2,Report,InnerRingInner);
Report = cat(2,Report,InnerRingOuter);
Report = cat(2,Report,OuterRingInner);
Report = cat(2,Report,OuterRingOuter);

for i = 1:1:TotalElement

xi = Report(i,1);
yi = Report(i,2);
ElementDist = sqrt(xi^2 + yi^2);

if ElementDist > Radius

continue;
end

fprintf(Script,'DONUT\n');
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,4));
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,5));
fprintf(Script,'%f,',Report(i,1));
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,2));
fprintf(Script,'\n');

fprintf(Script,'DONUT\n');
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,6));
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,7));

82
 fprintf(Script,'%f,',Report(i,1));
fprintf(Script,'%f\n',Report(i,2));
fprintf(Script,'\n');
end

fclose(Script);

elseif app.ScriptFormatSwitch.Value == "MCR"

Script =
fopen('OneStopRA/DoubleCircularRing/DoubleCircular.mcr','w');
fprintf(Script,'Sub Main ()\n');
fprintf(Script,'Component.New "Ring"\n');
W = K2*(Dimension(:,1));
OuterRingInner = (Dimension(:,1)-W);
OuterRingOuter = (Dimension(:,1));
InnerRingOuter = K1*(Dimension(:,1));
InnerRingInner = (K1*(Dimension(:,1))-W);

Report = cat(2,Coordinates,Dimension);
Report = cat(2,Report,InnerRingInner);
Report = cat(2,Report,InnerRingOuter);
Report = cat(2,Report,OuterRingInner);
Report = cat(2,Report,OuterRingOuter);

for i = 1:1:TotalElement

xi = Report(i,1);
yi = Report(i,2);
ElementDist = sqrt(xi^2 + yi^2);

if ElementDist > Radius

continue;
end
fprintf(Script,'With Cylinder\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Reset\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Name "Outer %d"\n',i);
fprintf(Script,' .Component "Ring"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Material "PEC"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .OuterRadius "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,7));
fprintf(Script,' .InnerRadius "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,6));
fprintf(Script,' .Axis "z"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Zrange "0", "0"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Xcenter "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,1));
fprintf(Script,' .Ycenter "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,2));
fprintf(Script,' .Segments "0"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Create\n');
fprintf(Script,'End With\n');

end

83
 for i = 1:1:TotalElement

xi = Report(i,1);
yi = Report(i,2);
ElementDist = sqrt(xi^2 + yi^2);

if ElementDist > Radius

continue;
end
fprintf(Script,'With Cylinder\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Reset\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Name "Inner %d"\n',i);
fprintf(Script,' .Component "Ring"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Material "PEC"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .OuterRadius "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,5));
fprintf(Script,' .InnerRadius "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,4));
fprintf(Script,' .Axis "z"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Zrange "0", "0"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Xcenter "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,1));
fprintf(Script,' .Ycenter "%f"\n',0.5*Report(i,2));
fprintf(Script,' .Segments "0"\n');
fprintf(Script,' .Create\n');
fprintf(Script,'End With\n');

end
fprintf(Script,'End Sub');
fclose(Script);
end

84
 Reflectarray Radiation Pattern Analysis (Snippets)

GridSize = app.GridWidthEditField.Value*1e-3;
NumElement = app.ElementPerAxisEditField.Value;
xPos = app.xEditField.Value*1e-3;
yPos = app.yEditField.Value*1e-3;
zPos = app.zEditField.Value*1e-3;
Feedpos = [xPos,yPos,zPos]; %X Y Z
%Initiate
YSteps = 0;
XSteps = 0;
%Reflectarray Parameters
OpFreq = app.FreqEditField.Value * 1e9;
Wavelength = 299792458/OpFreq;
k = (2*pi)/Wavelength; %K0
theta_b = app.Theta_bEditField.Value * pi/180; %theta0
phi_b = app.Phi_bEditField.Value * pi/180;
qf = app.qfEditField.Value;
qe = app.qeEditField.Value;
Phi = app.ObservationPhiEditField.Value * pi/180;
Counter_Temp = 0;

for Theta = -1.5:0.001:1.5

XStart = -((floor(NumElement/2))*GridSize);
YStart = (floor(NumElement/2))*GridSize;
YSteps = 0;
EFieldSum = 0;
Counter_Temp = Counter_Temp + 1;
for j = 1:1:NumElement
YCoord = YStart - YSteps; %Coord = coordinate of mnth element
for i = 1:1:NumElement %This is where the real action is
XCoord = XStart + XSteps;
rfvec = Feedpos;
rmnvec = [XCoord,YCoord,0]; %Center = 0,0,0
rvec = rmnvec - rfvec;
FeedHeight = Feedpos(3);
Theta_e = acos(FeedHeight/norm(rvec));
Theta_f = acos(((norm(rfvec))^2 + (norm(rvec))^2 -
(norm(rmnvec))^2)/(2*norm(rfvec)*norm(rvec)));
XSteps = XSteps + GridSize;
uvec = [sin(Theta)*cos(Phi), sin(Theta)*sin(Phi),
cos(Theta)];
Phi_mn = k * (norm(rvec) - sin(theta_b) *
(XCoord*cos(phi_b) + YCoord*sin(phi_b)));
EField_1element =
(((cos(Theta))^qe)*((cos(Theta_f))^qf)/norm(rvec))...
*exp(-sqrt(-1)*k*(norm(rvec)-dot(rmnvec,uvec)))...
*((cos(Theta_e))^qe)*exp(sqrt(-1)*Phi_mn);
EFieldSum = EFieldSum + EField_1element;

85
 end
XSteps = 0;
YSteps = YSteps + GridSize;
end
EFieldTotal(Counter_Temp) = 10*log10(abs(EFieldSum));
end
theta_rad = -1.5:0.001:1.5;
theta_deg = theta_rad*180/pi;
plot(app.UIAxes,theta_deg,EFieldTotal);
set(app.UIAxes,'xminorgrid','on','yminorgrid','on')

86
 APPENDIX B – HEALTH & SAFETY

For this FYP, the main danger came from testing the antenna in the compact range as the

author had to climb up to the testing platform in order to test his antenna. The testing platform was

more than 3m tall hence a fall might cause serious injuries. In order to mitigate the danger, the

author wore full covered shoes with good grip and made sure there were 2 more person to supervise

and provide assistance.

Another danger came from using the testing equipment in the microwave lab. As the test

equipment was highly sensitive, several measures were put in place to protect both users and the

equipment. The author had to wear a lab coat and a “grounding” wristband before using the

equipment.

Lastly, the author had also taken the compulsory safety quiz to ensure he is certified to operate

in the lab safely.

87