A Via-less Fully Screen-Printed Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for 5G Millimeter Wave Communication

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cost-effective, via-less, fully screen-printed reconfigurable intelligent surface operating at 23.5-29.5 GHz, capable of redirecting millimeter wave signals for enhanced 5G communication.

Contribution

It presents a novel via-less, fully screen-printed RIS design with integrated VO2 switches, simplifying fabrication and enabling effective beam steering at millimeter wave frequencies.

Findings

Achieved 215° to 160° phase shift between ON and OFF states.

Demonstrated at least 10 dB signal enhancement in field tests.

Successfully redirected incident waves by 45° to 0° reflection.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a via-less fully screen-printed reconfigurable intelligent surface which can establish a second line-of-sight communication from 23.5GHz to 29.5GHz. By serially connecting the H shaped resonator along the H field of the incident wave, we minimize the effect of the biasing lines and make a via-less design, which reduces the fabrication difficulty and cost. The unit-cell simulation of the array with screen-printed VO2 switches shows a 215{\deg} to 160{\deg} phase shift difference between the ON and OFF states within bandwidth. During the field testing of the ideal arrays, we verify that the array can redirect the 45{\deg} incident wave to 0{\deg} reflection with a signal enhancement of at least 10 dB as compared to the array which has all unit cells in the OFF condition.