A Novel Ku-Band Reflectarray Antenna Design Enabled by Stereolithography

A novel reflectarray antenna design enabled by stereolithography operating at Ku-band is presented. The demon-strated fully metallised 3-D unit cells feature multiple-layer cuboid elements attached to a ground plane through metallic vias. By varying the number of layers, the sizes of the elements of each layer, and the diameter of the vias, the required phase response is achieved, along with low reflection losses. Another benefit of the variable layer design is the engineered phase response over the frequency range of 14 to 17 GHz, which can lead to broad bandwidth reflectarray designs. At 15 GHz, simulations in CST Microwave Studio demonstrate that the reflectarray antenna achieves a directivity of approximately 33 dBi.