Wideband dual-polarization reconfigurable elementary cell for electronic steerable reflectarray at Ku-band

This paper presents a wideband reconfigurable PIN diode-based radiating element for beam steering reflectarrays. The elementary cell consists of a circular patch coupled to a phase shifting circuit with 1-bit phase resolution (0°/180°), operating at Ku-band. The use of 1-bit phase resolution was demonstrated to be a feasible solution to substantially simplify the design of very large reconfigurable reflectarrays. In this paper the architecture of the cell is presented and performance are evaluated by a full wave simulation. Dual polarization operation and a flat phase shift response over a 50% relative bandwidth are demonstrated. An improved structure adapted to simplify manufacturing process is then presented still showing a wide relative bandwidth even in case of incidence angles of 40° in elevation.