Effect of dielectric thickness on phase swing of a Ka-band microstrip reflectarray unit cell

In this paper, effect of substrate thickness on the phase swing of a reflectarray unit cell is studied for the first time. Using waveguide simulator approach, it is shown that an increase in the substrate thickness results in smaller phase swing. Previous studies have shown that an increase in the thickness reduces the loss and increases the efficiency. However, this study explores the limit on the maximum allowable thickness of a substrate based on the desired phase swing. The concept is demonstrated at 32GHz (within Ka band) which is the frequency band of interest for satellite communications using reflectarrays. A reflectarray unit cell is simulated, fabricated and measured. Good agreement between the simulation and measurement results is observed.