Electronically reconfigurable unit cell for transmit-reflect-arrays in the X-band

This paper proposes an electronically reconfigurable unit cell for transmit-reflect-arrays in the X-band, which makes it possible to control the reflection or transmission phase independently by combining the mechanisms of reconfigurable transmitarrays and reconfigurable reflectarrays. The fabricated unit cell was characterized in a waveguide simulator. The return loss in the reflection mode and insertion loss in the transmission mode are smaller than 1.8 dB for all states at 10.63 GHz, and a 1-bit phase shift for both modes is achieved within 180° ± 10°. When compared to full-wave electromagnetic simulation results, the proposed unit cell shows good results and is thus verified.