High-Power Dual-Polarized Reconfigurable Reflectarray for Directed Energy Applications

A high-power dual-polarized reconfigurable reflectar ray with all-metal antenna elements is presented for directed energy applications. The reflectaarry is comprised of 4-port antenna element that incorporates stacked 2-bit phase shifters for reconfiguration. Key to the design is the all-metal antenna, designed to endure intense radiation and harsh environmental conditions. Further, a Cassagrain sub-reflector is included to maximize the effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the high-power reflectarray system. Simulations demonstrated that the proposed unit cell design can achieve a full 0° - 360° phase shift. Additionally, it was observed that the antenna unit cell offers a gain of 5 dBi to 6.5 dBi at operating frequencies after reflection. A reflectarray prototype of 2m×2m, comprising the proposed 4-port unit cells will be constructed to steer the beam and serve as validation.