Innovative Reconfigurable Metasurface 2-D Beam-Steerable Reflector for 5G Wireless Communication

Abstract

A tunable reflector component based on metasurface (MS) with a low profile and reduced mass is offered for indoor and outdoor 5G communication methods to overcome obstacles such as buildings, walls, and turns, and to allow wireless quasi-line of sight path communication at 37 GHz. Integrating varactors with MS unit cells allows tunability and reconfigurability. This approach was presented in many studies, with frequencies of up to K–band. However, today, higher frequencies are used, especially in communication. This work presents the design of a reconfigurable MS reflector, at Ka-band frequencies, based on a new type of resonant unit cell, with uniformed reflection for wide-incident-angular-range, and a simple stimulating DC bias for each MS unit cell, which allows a two–dimensional (2-D) continuous reflection phase manipulation. The unit cell provides a dynamic reflection phase range of over 300° at a wide bandwidth. Simulations of one-dimensional (1-D) and (2-D) at 37 GHz are presented. A steering range of up to ±48° was obtained for azimuth or elevation. A simultaneous independent 2-D beam steering range of up to ±10° in azimuth and up to ± 5° in elevation, allowing obstacles to overcome covering at a practical angular spatial cone of 20° and 10°, is presented.

Ultra-Wideband Reconfigurable X-Band and Ku-Band Metasurface Beam-Steerable Reflector for Satellite Communications

“…Decreasing the value of C int makes the value of C d more dominant in the total unit cell capacitance C and increasing its dynamic tuning range. Using a dielectric substrate with ε r = 2 and reducing the unit cell and patch sizes reduces the value of C int [11,[17][18][19]36]. The reduction in the patches prevented the varactor from being placed directly on the adjacent patches' edges (blind pad), as in other works [8,15,28,30].…”

“…On the other hand, a large TC allows for a reduction in Q and unit cell losses while maintaining a high dynamic phase reflection range. Several methods add reconfiguring and tuning to MS, such as PIN switches, MEMS switches, liquid crystal materials, piezoelectric materials, and varactor diodes [8,9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. The liquid crystal method is used in the K-band and above and can be realized in MS as a tuning dielectric substrate, without any external element in the front, but is more challenging to implement [16].…”

“…A varactor diode allows for a continuous and high-tuning-capacitance ratio and fits the continuous reflection phase method in the proposed MS reflector [8,14,15,[17][18][19][28][29][30]. The varactor diodes allow for high-frequency work up to 70 GHz, a conventional PCB assembly, and extremely low consuming power [31], and thus leads to a focus on the varactor diode in this study.…”

“…However, the varactor diode suffers from relatively high losses compared to the switches. The losses effect is reduced by decreasing Q [11,[17][18][19]. The reduction in Q is justified due to the very high tunability of the varactor diode capacitance value with a high TC parameter.…”

Millimeter-Wave Reflector Based on a Ferroelectric Material with Electrical Beam Steering

“…The most common name for this type of device is a reflectarray. It can be based on partially reflecting surfaces [11], frequency-selective surfaces [12,13], and metasurfaces with integrated tunable elements [14][15][16]. However, the operating frequencies of such devices currently are limited to the Ku-band.…”