Investigation of FSS-Backed Reflectarray Using Different Classes of Cell Elements

A variety of cell elements are presented in this paper for the construction of frequency selective surface (FSS) backed reflectarrays. Among the cell elements are the conventional ring elements for FSS and slotted patch for the reflectarray. Different combinations of FSS cell elements and reflectarray cell elements are employed for the realization of FSS-backed reflectarrays and the criteria for the selection of the optimum structure are presented. Prototypes of these reflectarrays were fabricated and tested. The measurements demonstrated that for an optimum design, the gain of an FSS-backed reflectarray is about 1.0 dB lower than its counterpart backed by solid ground plane. Characterization of the out of band performance of these antennas demonstrated close to 1.0 dB insertion loss.