A Quad-Spiral Element with a Reconfigurable Direction of Radiation for Wide-Angle Steerable Vector Phased Array

The conventional phased array suffers a large gain reduction during wide-angle beam steering and poses a significant challenge for Space Solar Power Systems (SPSS). This paper introduces a novel approach to address this issue by using the Vector Phased Array (VP A) concept, which aims to enhance beam collection efficiency (BCE) and reduce gain loss during wide-angle beam steering. A passive beam-steering Quad-Spiral antenna element was designed, demonstrating low side-lobe levels (SLLs) and a gain degradation of only 2.9 dB at steering angles up to 56°, with full 360° phi coverage. The design also exhibited low mutual coupling performance and stable radiation characteristics across multiple steering modes, making it an ideal candidate for VP A-based SPSS applications.