Modern communication systems require intelligent antenna arrays to achieve
increased phase range for the performance improvement. Moreover the design
requirements of spacecraft antennas for satellite communications and
telecommunication missions require multifunction antennas to prevent the
propagation of electromagnetic waves in certain frequency bands. This project
investigates the feasibility of employing reflectarray antenna integrated with FSS
textured configurations to combat the scan blindness problem. Performance
investigation of different strategic resonant elements has been carried out in X-band
frequency range by using commercially available computer models of CST MWS
and Ansoft HFSS based on Finite Integral Method (FIM) and Finite Element Method
(FEM) respectively. Frequency Selective characteristics are also exploited by
embedding the dipole, square loop and triangular loop resonant elements on top of
the groundless substrate. Integrated FSS Reflectarray (FSS-RA) configurations based
on iterative loop length approach are than implemented for operation in both X and
Ku-band to improve the static phase range for the reduction of phase errors resulting
in scan blindness. It has been demonstrated that the maximum static phase range of
540° can be obtained with the loop length variation of 6.8mm. Moreover novel
algorithms based on mathematical models have been developed for the calculation of
progressive phase distribution depicted by each individual resonant element and
resonant frequency estimation of FSS reflectarrays. In order to validate the
authenticity of numerical results waveguide scattering parameter measurements have
been carried out by fabricating two patch unit cells for each reflectarray resonant
element. Measured results demonstrated that reduction in reflection area of resonant
elements from 105.74mm2
to 7.33mm2
tends to increase the reflection loss values
from 2.63dB to 20.25dB. Moreover, an increased measured static phase range of
290° offering the reduction in phase errors is also shown by employing the triangular
loop element