Recent developments and challenges on beam steering characteristics of reconfigurable transmitarray antennas

Qasim Ali, Waseem Shahzad, Iftikhar Ahmad, Shozab Safiq, Xi Bin, Syed Muzahir Abbas, Houjun Sun*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)
170 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper highlights recent developments and challenges on beam steering characteristics of reconfigurable transmitarray antennas. It introduces the operating principle of beam form-ing/beam steering high gain transmitarray antennas to enable the user to opt for economical and high performance solutions. A transmitarray antenna typically consists of a source antenna and a phase transformation structure. The incident waves generated from the source antenna is tilted using the phase transformation structure in a desired direction to steer the beam. Moreover, the phase transformation structure alters the incident wavefront to a plane wavefront using phase change characteristics. In order to steer a beam to a specific desired angle, it can be divided into two methods. There is a method of applying a transmitarray with a variable transmission phase change or a method of changing the shape of the wavefront of the source antenna. This type of beam forming/beam steering high gain antenna has been mainly studied from the point of view of high efficiency, low profile, and low cost. Several solutions of transmitarray unit cells have been presented in the literature, using PIN diodes, varactors, MEMS switches, and microfluids enable electronics to realize reconfig-urable characteristics of transmitarray antennas. This paper analyzes the characteristics of various beam steering high gain reconfigurable transmitarrays (RTA) and highlights the future opportunities and challenges of the structure design for transmitarray antennas. This paper also highlights the challenges and gaps in terahertz and optical frequencies related to future work due to the structure complexity and lack of components’ availability. Moreover, the challenges and limitations related to multi-bit structures and dual-band requirements are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Article number587
Pages (from-to)1-24
Number of pages24
JournalElectronics
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2022. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • reconfigurable transmitarray
  • beam steering
  • beamforming
  • PIN diodes
  • varactor
  • MEMS
  • dual-band transmitarray
  • multi-bit transmitarray

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