Characterization of Unit Cells of a Reconfigurable Intelligence Surface Integrated with Sensing Capability at the mmWave Frequency Band

Abstract

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is emerging as a main feature for 5G/6G communications. To enhance spectral and energy efficiencies in wireless environments, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) will play a significant role in beyond-5G/6G communications. Multi-functional RISs, capable of not only reflecting or transmitting the beam in desired directions but also sensing the signal, wirelessly transferring power to nearby devices, harvesting energy, etc., will be highly beneficial for beyond-5G/6G applications. In this paper, we propose a nearly 2-bit unit cell of RISs integrated with sensing capabilities in the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band. To collect a very small fraction of the impinging signals through vias, we employed substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology at the bottom of the unit cell and a via. This enabled the sensing of incoming signals, requiring only a small amount of the impinging signal to be collected through SIW. Initially, we utilized Floquet ports and boundary conditions to obtain various parameters of the unit cells. Subsequently, we examined 1 × 3-unit cells, placing them on the waveguide model to obtain the required parameters of the unit cell. By using the waveguide and 1 × 3-unit cell arrays, the sensing amount was also determined.