Reflectarray antenna simplification through non-radiating currents synthesis

This work presents a new design methodology aimed at simplifying the layout of microstrip reflectarrays. Towards this end, the proposed methodology reduces the size/shape variations between adjacent metallic patches, by smoothening the superficial current phase distribution required to re-radiate a desired far-field pattern. The theory of non-radiating (NR) sources is exploited to modify the current on the reflectarray surface, and the synthesis problem is solved through a Particle Swarm Optimizer (PSO) algorithm. An illustrative example is shown to verify the effectiveness and the potentialities of the developed approach.