Beam Steerable Reflectarray Enabling CubeSat Internet of Space: Conceptualization and Design (Invited Paper)

The vision of Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved the needs of providing seamless connectivity between devices across the globe. A potential solution to this requirement is to launch a CubeSat constellation that can provide broadband Internet access to rural and undeveloped areas (Internet of Space (IoS)). This has escalated the need for low-cost, low-profile antennas with wide angle beam steering capabilities. In this work, we elaborate on the design of a broadband, circularly polarized reflectarray capable of dynamic beam steering in the frequency range of 17.8-20.2 GHz. The reflectarray unit cell consists of a set of four copies of rotated Archimedean spiral arms, and the desired phase shift is obtained by suitably switching between these arms through PIN diodes. Representative prototypes have been fabricated and measured, and beam scans up to 60° have been achieved.