Electronic Beam Steering of Reflector Antenna Using Reconfigurable Digital Metasurface Sub-Reflector

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Master's degree, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

Abstract

Reflector antennas with mechanical beam steering ability are usually used to scan the surrounding space in telecommunication applications such as radars and satellites. On the other hand, mechanical rotation of antennas is difficult, slow and costly with low accuracy. Also, mechanical beam steering method is not suitable for applications that require changing beam direction with high speed. In this paper a dual reflector Cassegrain antenna with electronic beam steering capability is designed. A two-bit reconfigurable digital metasurface is used as a sub-reflector where its tunable unit cells are designed with varactors and beam steering is realized through controlling the phase profile of the metasurface. Results show that the proposed antenna with a high gain of 35 dB has 20 degrees beam steering range with 0.1 degrees resolution. This antenna can be considered as an applicable solution for the next generation of telecommunication systems due to the elimination of the mechanical beam steering problems of the reflector antennas.

Keywords


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Volume 13, Issue 1 - Serial Number 30
Spring and Summer
September 2025
Pages 29-37
  • Receive Date: 18 February 2025
  • Revise Date: 09 April 2025
  • Accept Date: 06 May 2025
  • Publish Date: 21 May 2025