Curved Apertures for Customized Wave Trajectories: Beyond Flat Aperture Limitations

TL;DR

This paper introduces curved apertures as a flexible alternative to flat apertures for beam shaping, enabling more precise and resilient control of wave trajectories in wireless communications.

Contribution

It presents a new formulation for wave trajectory engineering with arbitrarily shaped apertures, expanding the design possibilities beyond traditional flat aperture limitations.

Findings

Curved apertures provide better control over wave propagation.

They are more resilient to phase control constraints.

They achieve higher power density over wider beam trajectories.

Abstract

Beam shaping techniques enable tailored beam trajectories, offering unprecedented connectivity opportunities in wireless communications. Current approaches rely on flat apertures, which limit trajectory flexibility due to inherent geometric constraints. To overcome such restrictions, we propose adopting curved apertures as a more versatile alternative for beam shaping. We introduce a novel formulation for wave trajectory engineering compatible with arbitrarily shaped apertures. Theoretical and numerical analyses demonstrate that curved apertures offer improved control over wave propagation, are more resilient to phase control constraints, and achieve higher power density across a wider portion of the desired beam trajectory than flat apertures.