Additively Manufactured Dielectric Reflectarray Antenna for Millimeter Wave Satellite Communication

A highly-proficient and compact 3D-printed dielectric reflectarray (DR) antenna is engineered, fabricated, and tested to ensure wideband functionality for millimeter-wave satellite communication (SATCOM). Initially, a dielectric metamaterial unit cell (UC) having a periodicity of 0.28 λ 0 (here, λ 0 is free-space wavelength at 28 GHz) is proposed. Next, a DR structure is meticulously designed by arranging eight different variants of proposed UC in an 18 × 18 array according to obtained 3-bit quantized phase profile, resulting in an overall aperture area of 25.4 λ 0 2 . The proposed DR is primarily analysed for its performance using radiation pattern analysis based on array theory followed by full-wave simulation. The entire DR antenna setup consists of a 3D-printed horn antenna acting as a primary feed source, placed at a separation of 47 mm from DR along the +z-direction supported by a 3D-printed structural framework. The DR antenna is additively-manufactured and its performance evaluation is done in an anechoic chamber revealing a measured half-power bandwidth of 43% with a peak gain of 23.8 dBi at 28 GHz showcasing a notable gain enhancement of 9.7 dB compared to prior designs translating to a remarkable maximum aperture efficiency of 75%.