Circularly polarized low‐cost wide band reflectarray antenna constructed with subwavelength elements

A novel single‐layer subwavelength patch element is proposed to design the circularly polarized reflectarray in Ku band. The radiation characteristics of the phase‐shifting element are investigated. The relative linearly reflected phase response curve with 360° phase coverage is achieved. A reflectarray model constructed with the proposed element is designed and fabricated, and the angular rotation technique has been employed for obtaining reflected phase curve to compensate the spatial delay. The measurements are in good agreement with the simulations. The superior bandwidth and efficiency performance have been verified. The measured gain at the center frequency of 12.5 GHz is 26.5 dBi, corresponding to the aperture efficiency of 51.9%, and the obtained 1 dB gain and 3 dB AR bandwidth can reach 24.8% and 35.2%, respectively.