Radiation characteristics of conformal reflectarray antennas

Abstract

This paper investigates the feasibility of designing conformal reflectarrays on cylindrical surfaces, which provides insight into many radiation characteristics of conformal reflectarrays. A general array theory formulation is described that can be applied to any conformal reflectarray geometry. Convex and concave surfaces are studied and the radiation patterns, directivity, and bandwidth of these conformal reflectarrays are compared with planar designs. It is shown that for applications where a curved platform is available, sector reflectarrays can be a suitable design that achieves a similar performance to planar arrays.