On the conceptual equivalence of reflectarray and conductor-backed artificial lens

This paper reports a preliminary examination on whether the operation of a reflectarray is conceptually equivalent to a flat conducting sheet-backed artificial lens. This examination is done by comparing the estimated reflection phase of a reflectarray with the simulated reflection phase of a reflector-lens and with the transmission phase of a simple, transmitting dielectric lens at X-band. To facilitate simulations, the dielectric lenses are divided into segments, in correspondence with the elements of the reflectarray, and S11/S21 comparisons made between appropriate segments/elements. A reasonable match is noted among these observations.