An Improved Predesign Procedure for Shaped-Beam Reflectarrays

This article describes an improved design procedure for shaped-beam reflectarrays, which is advanced mainly in accuracy and concision. Specifically, the excitation has been computed by a new approach named local simulation instead of mathematical modeling, which demonstrates more advantage in precision. The intersection approach has been applied to optimization, and it is improved by introducing a new multi-stage strategy into the synthesis process to avoid local minima. Moreover, the phase-only optimization, calculation of the reflection phase data table and the simulation verification processes are combined as a co-simulation procedure by VBScript (Visual Basic Script). This procedure is very beneficial to design reflectarrays with efficiency. As an example, a reflectarray consists of 621 dual-loop elements is optimized, and a good sectored-cosecant squared beam result is obtained.