Quantized Reconfigurable plasma-based Reflectarray Antenna

This paper investigates the phase-quantization effects on the performance of the reconfigurable plasma reflectarray antenna including half-power beamwidth (HPBW), sidelobe level (SLL) and gain. The quantized reconfigurable reflectarray (QRRA) consists of 169 unit-cell elements arranged in a planar structure. The phase distribution of the reflection-coefficients for the array are controlled by changing the applied voltage of the plasma material. The effect of phase-quantization on the radiation pattern of QRRA is presented. Different quantized cases 1-bit, 2-bits and 3-bits are considered. The performance of the K-bits quantized reflectarray antenna is compared with that of continues phase reflectarray antenna. The gain-loss due to phase-quantization is explained for different quantization states.