Metasurface‐Programmable Wireless Network‐On‐Chip

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of smart radio environments, currently intensely studied for wireless communication in metasurface‐programmable meter‐scaled environments (e.g., inside rooms), on the chip scale. Wireless networks‐on‐chips (WNoCs) are a candidate technology to improve inter‐core communication on chips but current proposals are plagued by a dilemma: either the received signal is weak, or it is significantly reverberated such that the on–off‐keying modulation speed must be throttled. Here, this vexing problem is overcome by endowing the wireless on‐chip environment with in situ programmability which enables the shaping of the channel impulse response (CIR); thereby, a pulse‐like CIR shape can be imposed despite strong multipath propagation and without entailing a reduced received signal strength. First, a programmable metasurface suitable for integration in the on‐chip environment (“on‐chip reconfigurable intelligent surface”) is designed and characterized. Second, its configuration is optimized to equalize selected wireless on‐chip channels “over the air.” Third, by conducting a rigorous communication analysis, the feasibility of significantly higher modulation speeds with shaped CIRs is evidenced. The results introduce a programmability paradigm to WNoCs which boosts their competitiveness as complementary on‐chip interconnect solution.

Reflectionless programmable signal routers

“…We then generate statistical distributions of their imaginary parts and calculate their mean and variance. In our simulations, we can conveniently perform this analysis for different ratios of absorption rate to radiation coupling, ∣Γ abs /Γ rad ∣, by adding a finite conductivity to the walls ( 28 , 43 ) and varying it appropriately (see note S5).…”

“…Generalizations to guided or trapped waves in higher frequency regimes appear to be already within reach ( 35 , 56 , 57 ). Incidentally, our experimental setup maps directly into that of recently proposed metasurface-programmable wireless networks-on-chip ( 43 ). However, in principle, the connected channels can be guided or freely propagating in nature.…”

“…The cavity dimensions are L×34L in the x - y plane. Similar to ( 28 , 43 ), we apply an impedance boundary condition at the walls of the cavity, which simulates a metallic wall followed by an infinite domain. The domain has a unit relative permeability and permittivity.…”

Review Paper on Hardware of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

“…The authors proved that self-adaptive RISs outperform context-ignorant RISs only below particular noise levels. In [148], initially, the authors designed and characterized a programmable metasurface for integration in the on-chip environment. Then the authors optimized the configuration to equalize selected wireless on-chip channels.…”

Reconfigurable Optical Wireless Switches for On-Chip Interconnection

“…A recently proposed alternative paradigm, that can compete with ONoCs, is based on Wireless Networks-on-Chip (WiNoCs) [20][21][22]. Wireless communication can potentially alleviate the intricacy and overhead of a wired network topology.…”