Toward Dynamically Adapting Wireless Intra-Chip Channels to Traffic Needs with a Programmable Metasurface

Imani, Mohammadreza F.; Abadal, Sergi; Hougne, Philipp del

doi:10.1145/3416006.3431274

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The chip, illustrated in Figure 1e , is a layered structure consisting of a very thin layer of solder bumps (a typical thickness is 0.0875 mm) on top of the package substrate, followed by a 0.011 mm thick silicon‐dioxide (SiO 2 ) layer, a silicon (Si) substrate layer of thickness t and finally a 0.8 mm thick aluminum nitride (AlN) layer. [ 73 ] For simplicity, we assume that these layers are continuous without physical gaps between different cores. Moreover, we consider electrically small slot antennas as ports (see Section 8 ).…”

Section: On‐chip Rssi‐isi Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Metasurface‐Programmable Wireless Network‐On‐Chip

2022

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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.

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Section: On‐chip Rssi‐isi Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Metasurface‐Programmable Wireless Network‐On‐Chip

2022

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“…1 and detailed in Refs. [38,39]. In our simulations, the antennas acting as WNoC nodes are electrically small ports modeled as openings within the conductive solder bump layer.…”

Section: On-chip Rssi-isi Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further details on our RIS design were presented in Ref. [39]. Note, however, that our generic proposal of smart on-chip EM environments can also be realized with any other RIS design.…”

Section: On-chip Ris Design and Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metasurface-Programmable Wireless Network-on-Chip

Imani,

Abadal,

del Hougne

2021

Preprint

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We introduce the concept of smart radio environments, currently extensively studied for wireless communication in metasurface-programmable meter-scaled environments (e.g., inside rooms), on the chip scale. Wired intra-chip communication for information exchange between cores increasingly becomes a computation-speed-bottleneck for modern multi-core chips. Wireless intra-chip links with millimeter waves are a candidate technology to address this challenge, but they currently face their own problems: the on-chip propagation environment can be highly reverberant due to the metallic chip enclosure but transceiver modules must be kept simple (on/off keying) such that long channel impulse responses (CIRs) slow down the communication rate. Here, we overcome this problem by endowing the on-chip propagation environment with in situ programmability, allowing us to shape the CIR at will, and to impose, for instance, a pulse-like CIR despite the strong multipath environment. Using full-wave simulations, we design a programmable metasurface suitable for integration in the on-chip environment ("on-chip reconfigurable intelligent surface"), and we demonstrate that the spatial control offered by the metasurface allows us to shape the CIR profile. We envision (i) dynamic multi-channel CIR shaping adapted to on-chip traffic patterns, (ii) analog wave-based over-the-air computing inside the chip enclosure, and (iii) the application of the explored concepts to off-chip communication inside racks, inside the chassis of personal computers, etc.

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“…Last but not least, algorithmic designs that jointly optimize the RISenabled analog processing with the transceiver functionalities, requiring affordable computational complexity and control signaling overhead, are necessary. We also believe that analog multipath shaping will also impact wireless communication on the chip scale [30].…”

Section: Research Challenges and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Rich Scattering Wireless Communications: Recent Experiments, Challenges, and Opportunities

Alexandropoulos,

Shlezinger,

del Hougne

2021

Preprint

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Recent advances in the fabrication and experimentation of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) have motivated the concept of the smart radio environment, according to which the propagation of information-bearing waveforms in the wireless medium is amenable to programmability. Although the vast majority of recent experimental research on RIS-empowered wireless communications gravitates around narrowband beamforming in quasi-free space, RISs are foreseen to revolutionize wideband wireless connectivity in dense urban as well as indoor scenarios, which are usually characterized as strongly reverberant environments exhibiting severe multipath conditions. In this article, capitalizing on recent physics-driven experimental explorations of RIS-empowered wave propagation control in complex scattering cavities, we identify the potential of the spatiotemporal control offered by RISs to boost wireless communications in rich scattering channels via two case studies. First, an RIS is deployed to shape the multipath channel impulse response, which is shown to enable higher achievable communication rates. Second, the RIS-tunable propagation environment is leveraged as an analog multiplexer to localize non-cooperative objects using wave fingerprints, even when they are outside the line of sight. Future research challenges and opportunities in the algorithmic design and experimentation of smart rich scattering wireless environments enabled by RISs for sixth Generation (6G) wireless communications are discussed.

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Toward Dynamically Adapting Wireless Intra-Chip Channels to Traffic Needs with a Programmable Metasurface

Cited by 5 publications

References 39 publications

Metasurface‐Programmable Wireless Network‐On‐Chip

Metasurface‐Programmable Wireless Network‐On‐Chip

Metasurface-Programmable Wireless Network-on-Chip

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Rich Scattering Wireless Communications: Recent Experiments, Challenges, and Opportunities

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