A Wideband Digitally Coded Metasurface Using Staggering Tuning Mechanisms for Beam Steering Application in 6G mm-Wave Communication
摘要
The digitally coded metasurface (DCM) is essential for controlling the direction of electromagnetic wave propagation through digital coding. In 6G millimeter-wave communication, the bandwidth enhancement of DCM with low cost has been an attractive area of research. In this chapter, a cost-effective, ultra-compact, ultra-thin, 1-bit wideband digitally coded metasurface (WbDCM) is proposed for beam steering applications in 6G mm-wave communication. Utilizing the staggering tuning mechanism with three different-size resonating patches on the top layer, a 25.10 GHz to 33.28 GHz wideband is accomplished within an aperture of 0.67 λ0 and thickness of 0.05 λ0. Moreover, through modifying the patch position, a constant phase gradient profile on the top surface is induced for covering up to 0 to 2π phase range with uniform amplitude. This decoupling between successive meta-atom cells carries out its angular stability up to 40° and 30° for both azimuth and elevation angles, respectively. Finally, an array of 16 × 16 consisting of WbDCM reflector is developed to improve the half-power bandwidth (HPBW), angular reciprocity, and target deviation error (TDE) along with less side lobe level (SLL) for performance enhancement of WbDCM.