Design of a reconfigurable reflectarray based on a varactor tuned element

The design of a single varactor-based reconfigurable reflectarray is presented which adopts an aperture-coupled single-element configuration. A planar array prototype of 3×15 radiators is considered as validation example of the proposed structure. A DAC-board is integrated to the reflectarray antenna for driving the varactor bias voltages. Measured radiation patterns are reported to demonstrate the beam-scanning capabilities of the designed reflectarray prototype.