A Dual-Polarized Reconfigurable Reflectarray Antenna Based on a Symmetrically Rotated Sub-Array

This paper proposes a novel method for designing a dual-polarized reconfigurable reflectarray antenna (RRA) based on a symmetrically rotated sub-array operating in a single-band. To improve aperture efficiency and prevent grating lobes, a miniaturized unit cell of a rectangular ring patch with a size of 0.3 lambda(0) is adopted, where the lambda(0) is a wavelength in free-space for a center frequency of 10 GHz. By employing the RRA with a symmetrically rotated sub-array, a significant suppression of the cross-polarization level (CPL) and a slight enhancement in peak gain are both achieved. The dual-polarized metasurface with 164 elements is assembled using a feeding structure optimized with F/D = 0.52. The beam steerable RRA is electronically controlled by a control board and has a wide beam steering range of up to +/- 60 degrees. The high aperture efficiencies of 26.2% and 27.0%, and relatively low CPLs of -22.6 and -22.8 dB for the x- and y-polarized beams were measured, respectively. Furthermore, the extended functions of the presented RRA, such as dual-polarized dual-beam steering and circular polarized beam steering, are confirmed in full-wave simulation.