Full-Wave Electromagnetic Techniques to Analyze Advance Reflective and Periodic Surfaces

Abstract

In this contribution, we present an in-depth comparison of two analysis techniques for reflective periodic surfaces, such as reflectarrays. The former, calculates the radiation pattern through the previous knowledge of the incident field and behavior of the reflecting surface. The latter computes the farfield by the tangential currents of a tridimensional antenna model. A technical comparison of these two techniques has been conducted, through the evaluation of two reflectarray prototypes. The predicted results achieved by each method exhibit a good tradeoff between accuracy with measurements and computation time, though the second approach gives a higher flexibility to include other elements of the electromagnetic environment, such as the primary source, or supporting structures.