2D Waveguide-Fed Metasurface Antenna Arrays: Modeling and Optimization for Bistatic Sensing

TL;DR

This paper develops a physics-based modeling and optimization framework for 2D waveguide-fed metasurface antenna arrays used in bistatic sensing, emphasizing mutual coupling effects and metasurface placement for enhanced target estimation accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled-dipole model with passivity constraints and a novel optimization approach incorporating the Cramer-Rao bound for metasurface-based XL MIMO bistatic sensing.

Findings

Metamaterial placement significantly impacts sensing accuracy.

The proposed model accurately predicts mutual coupling effects.

Optimization improves position error bounds in near-field sensing.

Abstract

This paper presents a physics-consistent framework for bistatic sensing incorporating a 2-Dimensional (2D) waveguide-fed metasurface antenna array capable of realizing eXtremely-Large Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (XL MIMO) apertures. A coupled-dipole model is presented that captures the array's mutual coupling due to both waveguide and free-space interactions, and a novel passivity constraint on the corresponding magnetic polarizabilities is proposed. Focusing on a bistatic sensing setup, we leverage a Neumann-series approximation of the array response model and derive the Cramer-Rao bound for multi-target parameter estimation, which is then incorporated into a sensing optimization formulation with respect to the metasurface's per-element resonance strength configuration. Simulation results on the position error bound in the radiative near field with the proposed design quantify the critical role of metamaterial placement in strongly coupled metasurface-based XL MIMO bistatic sensing systems.