Dual Dielectric Metasurface for Simultaneous Sensing and Reconfigurable Reflections

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dual-functional reconfigurable metasurface capable of simultaneous sensing and reflection control, using a novel hybrid unit cell design and embedded sensing arrays for enhanced wireless communication.

Contribution

The work presents a new hybrid unit cell design supporting dual functionalities and integrates sensing arrays within a reconfigurable metasurface for improved channel sensing and reflection.

Findings

Full-wave simulations demonstrate effective dual functionalities at 5.5 GHz.

Hybrid unit cells support miniaturization and dual operation.

Embedded sensing arrays successfully sense channel parameters.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel dual-functional hybrid Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) for simultaneous sensing and reconfigurable reflections. We design a novel hybrid unit cell featuring dual elements, which share the same phase center, to support both intended functionalities, with the antenna being miniaturized via a high dielectric material approach. The hybrid unit cell has a size of one eighth of the wavelength forming the foundation of an innovative metasurface that incorporates a sub-wavelength reflecting array of split-ring unit cells integrated with a load-tuning matrix. In particular, two interleaved sensing arrays of half-wavelength spacing, orthogonal polarization, and quarter-wavelength offset are embedded within the proposed dual-functional RIS, each tasked to sense the channel parameters towards one of the end communication nodes wishing to profit from the surface's reconfigurable reflections. Our full-wave simulations, indicatively centered around the frequency of $5.5$ GHz, showcase the promising performance of both designed hybrid unit cells and reflective split-ring ones.