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Abstract

High-gain antennas are a crucial component of microwave, millimetre, and sub-millimetre wave communication and sensing systems. Many systems, such as satellite communication links, point-to-point terrestrial links, deep-space communication links, RADAR systems, and remote-sensing systems depend on high-gain antennas that can be realized in low-profile form at low cost. Combining the best features of reflector antennas and antenna arrays, reflectarrays are promising planar antenna solution for these applications, providing good efficiency and a high degree of flexibility in synthesizing arbitrary antenna patterns. Furthermore, they can be engineered to provide reconfigurable beam-forming capabilities using a variety of approaches. This chapter describes the fundamental operating and design principles of reflectarrays, both in fixed and reconfigurable form. Several practical design examples are included to help readers build confidence with designing this type of space-fed array. Important developments in the field, particularly in the active research area of reconfigurable reflectarrays, are summarized and important future challenges enumerated. Finally, the state of the art in reflectarray applications is reviewed, illustrating the promising future of this emergent antenna architecture.

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Hum, S.V. (2018). Reflectarrays. In: Boriskin, A., Sauleau, R. (eds) Aperture Antennas for Millimeter and Sub-Millimeter Wave Applications. Signals and Communication Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62773-1_5

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