Deployment and mounting system effects on a Ka-band reflectarray antenna: a sensitivity analysis

Abstract Reflectarray antennas are utilized in a wide variety of space missions as they combine benefits of reflector and phased array antennas. Large reflectarrays often require deployment mechanisms to enable their use on smaller satellites. The non-idealities of the reflector deployment system and the reflector mounting interfaces can significantly affect the radio frequency (RF) performance of the antenna. However, with lacking previous analysis on these effects, estimating the RF performance degradation is challenging, particularly at early design stages. This work aims to address this issue by analyzing the effects of mounting and deployment system non-idealities on a large, multipanel Ka-band (30 GHz) reflectarray antenna. The selected simulation analysis approach enables inducing and controlling small inaccuracies with high precision. This work shows that only $$0.10^{\circ }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and $$0.20^{\circ }$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>20</mml:mn> <mml:mo>∘</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> angular panel deployment inaccuracies lead to 1 dB and 3 dB gain loss, respectively. Typical reflector penetrating surface features can lead to more than 2 dB gain loss, and panel position inaccuracy out of the reflector plane starts rapidly degrading the gain performance after exceeding 1 mm. This work provides valuable data for estimating the magnitude of effects of non-ideal reflector mounting and deployment system features on large reflectarray antennas already at the start of the antenna design process.