Joint Detections of Frequency and Direction of Arrival in Wideband Based on Programmable Metasurface

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for joint detection of frequency and direction of arrival using a single active programmable metasurface, validated through simulations and experiments across a broad frequency band.

Contribution

It presents a new single-sensor approach utilizing a programmable metasurface with switchable meta-atoms for joint detection of frequency and direction in wideband signals.

Findings

Successful realization of transmission difference in 5.9-8.8 GHz band.

Accurate detection of source frequency and direction in various scenarios.

Validation through simulations and experiments with different source configurations.

Abstract

We propose to achieve joint detections of frequency and direction of arrival in wideband using single sensor based on an active metasurface with programmable transmission states of pass and stop. By integrating two PIN diodes with the opposite directions into the proposed single-layer and ultrathin meta-atom, the transmission performance with 10 dB difference between the pass and stop states is realized in the bandwidth from 5.9 GHz to 8.8 GHz using field-circuit co-simulations. Accordingly, random receiving patterns are generated by controlling the programmable metasurface composed of the switchable meta-atoms. Afterwards, the frequency and direction information of sources located in the far field are detected using the modified algorithm of estimating signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT) and the compressive sensing method, respectively. A sample of the programmable metasurface is fabricated and the voltage control system is built up correspondingly. To entirely verify the validity of the proposed method, we conduct three kinds of experiments with one single source, double sources with different frequencies, and double sources with the same frequency, respectively. In all cases, the source information of frequency and direction has been detected preciously in measurements in the frequency band from 6.2 GHz to 8.8 GHz.