Origami-Driven Manufacturing of Reflectarrays or Transmitarrays With Feeds and Fixture

This article presents an advancement in reflectarray and transmitarray technology achieved through the integration of the aperture, feed, and fixture onto one flexible substrate. In contrast to previous studies that focused on only the deployability or reconfigurability of the aperture, the proposed technique integrates all essential components onto a 2-D crease pattern of a polyhedron. This pattern is then folded into a 3-D model, resulting in versatile applications that capitalize on the multiple facets. Validation employs five distinct structures, categorized into reflectarray and transmitarray configurations. In reflectarrays, the versatility of the proposed origami technique is demonstrated through its applicability to both conventional reflectarray antennas and advanced applications such as the dual-reflectarray. This versatility is attributed to the method’s adeptness at leveraging the surface topology of a polyhedron, enabling the effective exploitation of multiple surfaces to accommodate a greater number of essential components. In transmitarrays, the proposed technique is adept at accommodating multilayer unit cell designs, essential for achieving an extended adjustable phase range. This capability is exhibited through a beam-switching antenna, wherein numerous facets function as feeds and multilayer transmitarrays. The comprehensive proof-of-concept designs underscore the vast potential of the proposed approach, spanning from gain-enhanced configurations to beam-switching capabilities.