On Propagation Characteristics of Reconfigurable Surface Wave Platform: Simulation and Experimental Verification

TL;DR

This paper investigates the propagation characteristics of a reconfigurable surface wave platform using simulations and experiments, demonstrating its potential for low-loss, programmable wireless communication paths with effective switching schemes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel reconfigurable surface wave platform with verified simulation and experimental results, highlighting its low path loss and reconfigurability for wireless communications.

Findings

Verified simulation and experimental results confirm low path loss.

Effective switching between straight and bent pathways demonstrated.

Reconfigurable platform shows potential for wide-band, programmable communication.

Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) as a smart reflector is revolutionizing research for next-generation wireless communications. Complementing this is a concept of using RIS as an efficient propagation medium for potentially superior path loss characteristics. Motivated by a recent porous surface architecture that facilitates reconfigurable pathways with cavities filled with fluid metal, this paper studies the propagation characteristics of different pathway configurations in different lossy materials on the reconfigurable surface wave platform by using a commercial full electromagnetic simulation software and S-parameters experiments. This paper also looks into the best scheme to switch between a straight pathway and a $90^\circ$-bend and attempts to quantify the additional path loss when making a turn. Our experimental results verify the simulation results, showing the effectiveness of the proposed reconfigurable surface wave platform for a wide-band, low path loss and highly programmable communications.