Patent ID: 8289221

Claim:
A center-fed flat deployable reflectarray antenna system having a deployable reflector with a center area, a deployment mast, a waveguide, and an antenna feed, the antenna system comprised of: a. a flat reflectarray antenna that in a deployed configuration is subdivided into a plurality of n flat panels of equal size about its center with panel mounting brackets attached to each of said panels at the panel region adjacent to the center area; b. a deployment mast comprised of a hollow cylinder wall having an inner and outer surface with a cylinder central axis aligned vertically and top and bottom ends and with n-1 guide slots cut through the wall and through which the panel mounting brackets are moveably attached, a first panel fixedly attached to the base of the outer wall surface of said hollow cylinder in a plane perpendicular to said central axis, said guide slots so arranged such that in a stacked configuration the n-1 movable panels can be vertically stacked over the fixed panel and vertically separated one from the other by a small distance d and further said guide slots arranged to permit said stacked moveable panels to move predetermined multiples of 360/n degrees after which said panels drop vertically downward simultaneously within said guide slots to form a uniform planar reflectarray antenna reflector in the plane of the fixed panel; c. means for moving said moveable panels along said guide slots from the stacked configuration to the deployed configuration; and d. a waveguide with an antenna feed on one end and centered about the central axis of said hollow cylinder such that said antenna feed extends an appropriate distance above said reflectarray antenna in its deployed configuration.