Analysis of Design Optimization of Bandwidth and Loss Performance of Reflectarray Antennas Based on Material Properties

Abstract

An investigation for the enhancement strategy of bandwidth performance and analysis of different types of losses associated with reflectarray antennas is presented in this paper. Studies are carried out using different commercially available dielectric materials with dielectric permittivity (?r) values ranging from 2.08 to 13 and loss tangent (tan?) ranging from 0.0003 to 0.025. The performance of different dielectric materials for the design of infinite reflectarray is analyzed in terms of bandwidth, reflection loss and Figure of Merit (FOM). Bandwidth of patch element unit cell at different levels are observed and it has been shown that 10% bandwidth varies from 84 MHz to 360MHz and 20% bandwidth varies from 126 MHz to 540MHz based on the selection of dielectric substrate for reflectarray antenna design. Moreover it has been demonstrated that the reflection loss of the reflectarray antenna can be factorized into dielectric loss and conductor loss which depends on the material properties employed for the design.