Metasurface-Programmable Wireless Network-on-Chip

TL;DR

This paper presents a programmable metasurface for wireless networks-on-chip that shapes the channel impulse response, enabling higher modulation speeds and improved inter-core communication without signal degradation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel on-chip reconfigurable metasurface that actively shapes wireless channels, overcoming multipath issues and enhancing communication performance.

Findings

Programmable metasurface successfully shapes the channel impulse response.

Higher modulation speeds achieved with shaped CIRs.

Enhanced wireless communication performance on-chip.

Abstract

We introduce 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, we overcome this vexing problem by endowing the wireless on-chip environment with in situ programmability which allows us to shape the channel impulse response (CIR); thereby, we can impose a pulse-like CIR shape despite strong multipath propagation and without entailing a reduced received signal strength. First, we design and characterize a programmable metasurface suitable for integration in the on-chip environment ("on-chip reconfigurable intelligent surface"). Second, we optimize its configuration to equalize selected wireless on-chip channels "over the air". Third, by conducting a rigorous communication analysis, we evidence the feasibility of significantly higher modulation speeds with shaped CIRs. Our results introduce a programmability paradigm to WNoCs which boosts their competitiveness as complementary on-chip interconnect solution.