By leveraging metamaterials and compressive imaging, a low-profile aperture capable of microwave imaging without lenses, moving parts, or phase shifters is demonstrated. This designer aperture allows image compression to be performed on the physical hardware layer rather than in the postprocessing stage, thus averting the detector, storage, and transmission costs associated with full diffraction-limited sampling of a scene. A guided-wave metamaterial aperture is used to perform compressive image reconstruction at 10 frames per second of two-dimensional (range and angle) sparse still and video scenes at K-band (18 to 26 gigahertz) frequencies, using frequency diversity to avoid mechanical scanning. Image acquisition is accomplished with a 40:1 compression ratio.

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We demonstrate a low-profile holographic imaging system at millimeter wavelengths based on an aperture composed of frequency-diverse metasurfaces. Utilizing measurements of spatially-diverse field patterns, diffraction-limited images of human-sized subjects are reconstructed. The system is driven by a single microwave source swept over a band of frequencies (17.5–26.5 GHz) and switched between a collection of transmit and receive metasurface panels. High fidelity image reconstruction requires a precise model for each field pattern generated by the aperture, as well as the manner in which the field scatters from objects in the scene. This constraint makes scaling of computational imaging systems inherently challenging for electrically large, coherent apertures. To meet the demanding requirements, we introduce computational methods and calibration approaches that enable rapid and accurate imaging performance.

The ability to wirelessly power electrical devices is becoming of greater urgency as a component of energy conservation and sustainability efforts. Due to health and safety concerns, most wireless power transfer (WPT) schemes utilize very low frequency, quasi-static, magnetic fields; power transfer occurs via magneto-inductive (MI) coupling between conducting loops serving as transmitter and receiver. At the “long range” regime – referring to distances larger than the diameter of the largest loop – WPT efficiency in free space falls off as (1/d)6; power loss quickly approaches 100% and limits practical implementations of WPT to relatively tight distances between power source and device. A “superlens”, however, can concentrate the magnetic near fields of a source. Here, we demonstrate the impact of a magnetic metamaterial (MM) superlens on long-range near-field WPT, quantitatively confirming in simulation and measurement at 13–16 MHz the conditions under which the superlens can enhance power transfer efficiency compared to the lens-less free-space system.