In this study, a new concept for a Ka-band 5G communication tunable reflector metasurface (MS) for beam steering at 28 GHz is proposed. Varactor diodes are used as the tunability component of each unit cell of this MS. Significant improvements in beam steering and bandwidth performance were achieved using this new concept referred to as the stripes configuration. Several different geometries of unit cells arranged in stripes were designed to achieve better performance in directionality, gain, sidelobe level (SLL), and bandwidth in the stripes configuration. Simulation results for a three-stripe MS with different unit cells in each stripe showed better performance in the phase dynamic range and reduced reflectance losses compared to a typical one-stripe MS. The simulation results showed a significant improvement of 3 dB, depending on the steering angle in reflectance gain, compared to a uniform MS (one stripe). Furthermore, a significant improvement of approximately 50% in the accuracy of the steering angle for different operating frequencies was demonstrated. Manufacturing considerations are discussed in this study.
The new requirements from the 5 th and the 6 th generation of wireless communication are ultra-high data rate, energy efficiency, wide coverage and connectivity, high reliability, and low latency. The current technologies cannot achieve all the mentioned requirements. New technologies and new approaches for deploying more active and passive nodes must be developed. Furthermore, the use of MMW band and THz band (30 -300 GHz), in order to utilize their huge bandwidth, results in deploying more active node and more antennas due to high propagation losses and "LOS" behavior at this band. Development of innovative technologies is necessary to realize the above demand for growth of future wireless communication. The main task is to suggest solutions for the time varying characteristic of the wireless channel due to the user mobility and shadowing or blocking of communication channel. The current methods such as use of pilot channel to estimate the fading, various modulation or coding and beamforming, have overhead and limitations over random (large, unexpected changes) channels.
Lately, metasurface has become an essential and promising component in implementing Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) for 5G and 6G. A novel method that simplifies the ability to reconfigure the metasurface is presented in this paper. The suggested technology uses a PIN photodiode as a tuning element. The desired image is projected on the metasurface’s backside, where the PIN photodiodes are placed and reconfigures the metasurface. The projected image’s color and intensity pattern influence the PIN photodiode’s junction capacitance, which leads to local reflection phase control. This enables the required pattern reflection phase distribution to manipulate the reflection beam, for example, 2D beam steering or focusing, and any other beam forming combination, instead of wiring many digital-to-analog converters (DACs) or FPGA outputs, which bias the standard tuning element such as PIN diode or varactor using a complex RF circuit. Using a PIN photodiode as a tunable element instead of a varactor diode, PIN diode, Liquid Crystal and MEMS allows the changing of the internal junction capacitance without direct contact and thus continuously controlling the reflection phase. In addition, an open circuit work mode with negligible energy consumption can be obtained. This technology can be used to implement metasurface based on discrete or continuous phases and is called Steer by Image (SBI). A full description of the SBI technology using PIN photodiode is presented in this paper.
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