Vikrant Singh

A reconfigurable metamaterial-inspired unit cell is proposed that can be reconfigured to behave either as a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) or as a perfect electric conductor (PEC) and its application to waveguide miniaturisation is demonstrated. The unit cell is designed to operate in the sub-6 GHz band at 3.6 GHz with a PMC bandwidth of ≈ 150 MHz and has a simple construction that makes the design easy to fabricate. The phase response of the reconfigurable unit cell is presented and a prototype design of a miniaturised waveguide using the proposed unit cell is also proposed. The performance and field distribution of the waveguide are analysed which demonstrate the existence of a pass-band spanning ≈ 160 MHz below the cutoff frequency and the presence of a quasi TEM mode.

This paper presents a fully-transparent and novel frequency selective surface (FSS) that can be deployed instead of conventional glass to reduce the penetration loss encountered by millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies in typical outdoorindoor (O2I) communication scenarios. The presented design uses a 0:035 mm thick layer of indium tin oxide (ITO), which is a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) deposited on the surface of the glass, thereby ensuring the transparency of the structure. The paper also presents a novel unit cell that has been used to design the hexagonal lattice of the FSS structure. The dispersion and transmission characteristics of the proposed design are presented and compared with conventional glass. The presented FSS can be used for both 26 GHz and 28 GHz bands of the mmWave spectrum and offers a lower transmission loss as compared to conventional glass without any considerable impact on the aesthetics of the building infrastructure.

—This paper introduces the latest designed electromagnetic metasurfaces at the Institute for Communication Systems (ICS) for 5G-and-beyond networks. Various technologies and metasurfaces at different frequency ranges were developed to solve the drawbacks related to metasurfaces such as the limited bandwidth and Non-line-of-sight (NLoS) coverage issues. I. REFLECTIVE METASURFACES FOR 5G AND 6G COMMUNICATIONS One core objective of applying reflective metasurfaces in future communication systems is to provide electromagnetic (EM) coverage in the network's blind spots [1]. This happens by regulating the aperture response when it is illuminated by EM source(s), to purposefully reflect the incoming waves to the direction of interest. Controlling the aperture response can be done by the generalized Snell's law of reflection and holographic technique. In this section, we introduce two reflective metasurfaces based on these two techniques. A. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface based on Generalized Snell's Law of Reflection A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is presented in [2] where the generalized Snell's law of reflection is applied to regulate the phase profile on the surface. This method requires knowledge about the location of the EM source and the direction of reflection, as well as the spacing between the unit cells on the surface. In a designed structure, the unit cell spacing (periodicity) is in general constant, but the location of the EM source and the direction of reflection can vary case by case. Hence, it is required to add a controllable component (varactor diode in [2]) to the physics of the unit cell to correspondingly customize the response of the surface and to make a reconfigurable structure. B. Reflective Metasurface based on Holography Technique A holographic-based reflective metasurface is presented in [3]. In the holography technique, the direction of the incoming waves must be known, and then, based on the direction of reflection, an interferogram will be obtained which is the so-called EM hologram. With this technique, it is possible to define more than one reflected beam, resulting in multi-spot coverage provisioning. Under this circumstance, the su-perposition of the desired reflecting beams will contribute to calculating the EM hologram. A dual-beam reflector is designed in [3] correspondingly. II. REFLECTIVE METASURFACE FOR OAM BEAMS GENERATION Orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams have been suggested as a strong solution to increase the channel capacity of a communication system by utilizing many orthogonal independent channels without using extra frequency resources [4]. Therefore, they can be used to solve the limited bandwidth drawback of metasurfaces. A. Reflective Metasurface with Steered OAM Beams Three environment-friendly reflective metasurfaces with single and dual-directed OAM beams to tackle the poor network coverage of THz waves in the absence of LoS communications are introduced in [5]. The integration between the OAM and THz RMTS technologies can improve spectral efficiency through a low-cost and low-profile solution. The presented metasurfaces of 90 × 90 mm were simulated, fabricated, and tested to verify the capability to control and steer the wavefront of the EM waves in the frequency range 90-110 GHz. B. THz reflectarray antenna with OAM multiplexing and beam-steering capabilities The unexplored potentials of reflectarray antennas to manipulate OAM beams are examined at 330 GHz in [6]. It investigated the maximum achievable angles by a planar meta-surface per single feed for a single OAM beam. That motivated the proposed work to investigate the possibility of generating multiple off-centered OAM beams of different modes with the maximal achievable angles for OAM multiplexing and beam-scanning applications through passive structures. The designed RAs can be envisaged for THz indoor communications. III. REPROGRAMMABLE GRAPHENE-BASED DIGITAL METASURFACE The metasurfaces using phase-only or amplitude-only engineering have limited the full functionality of the devices. In [7], a digital graphene-based metasurface simultaneously manipulating both amplitude and phase has been proposed to address this challenge in the terahertz (THz) band. As Fig. 1(c) presents conceptually, leveraging a 2/2-bit digital unit cell with independent control of 2-bit states of amplitude and phase, an efficient multi-focal meta-lens has been demonstrated. Moreover , the proposed metasurface has been applied to develop a

In this letter, a dual-band 8x8 MIMO antenna that operates in the sub-6 GHz spectrum for future 5G multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) smartphone applications is presented. The design consists of a fully grounded plane with closely spaced orthogonal pairs of antennas placed symmetrically along the long edges and on the corners of the smartphone. The orthogonal pairs are connected by a 7.8 mm short neutral line for mutual coupling reduction at both bands. Each antenna element consists of a folded monopole with dimensions 17.85 x 5mm2 and can operate in 3100-3850 MHz for the low band and 4800-6000 MHz for the high band ([S11] ˂ -10dB). The fabricated antenna prototype is tested and offers good performance in terms of Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC), Mean Effective Gain (MEG), total efficiency and channel capacity. Finally, the user effects on the antenna and the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) are also presented.

A new single-fed circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna (CP-DRA) without beam squint is presented. The DRA comprises an S-shaped dielectric resonator (SDR) with a metalized edge and two rectangular dielectric resonators (RDRs) blocks. Horizontal extension section is applied as an extension of the SDR, and a vertical-section is placed in parallel to the metallic edge. A vertical coaxial probe is used to excite the SDR and the vertical RDR blocks through an S-shaped metal element and a small rectangular metal strip. The two added RDRs that form an L-shaped DR improve the radiation characteristics and compensate for the beam squint errors. A wideband CP performance is achieved due to the excitation of several orthogonal modes such as [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]. The experimental results demonstrate an impedance bandwidth of approximately [Formula: see text] (3.71-7.45 GHz) and a 3-dB axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth of about [Formula: see text] (3.72-6.53 GHz) with a stable broadside beam achieving a measured peak gain of about [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, a 100% correction in beam squint value from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] with respect to the antenna boresight is achieved.

A polarisation insensitive transparent metasurface with two pass bands and two stop bands is proposed for 5G outdoor to indoor (O2I) coverage enhancement. Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been applied in order to provide the structural geometry of the unit cell for this metasurface. The proposed periodic structure consists of a unit cell design consisting of five stacked transparent patterned layers of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) substrates. The proposed transmission metasurface can be easily mounted on conventional glass windows to assist the O2I 4G/5G signals for the n7 and n78 of the 5G new radio (5G-NR), as well as shielding the 2.4/5 GHz WiFi signals from penetrating outside the building thereby enhancing the security.

This paper proposes a reconfigurable wideband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC), insensitive to the tilt-angle of linear polarization, that offers an overall AMC bandwidth of 550 MHz from 3.55 GHz to 4.1 GHz. The operating frequency of the proposed AMC can be altered by varying the reverse biasing of the varactor diodes. The proposed AMC is evaluated for variations in the tilt-angle of linear polarization and also as a reflector for a standard bowtie antenna due to its wideband characteristics. The results show its voltage-controlled wideband operation for obtaining a directional radiation pattern suitable for a typical wideband 5G base station antenna.

Beyond 5G networks would require newer technologies to deliver a smarter network. In accordance with these requirements, an electronically steerable compact antenna system capable of beam-switching in the azimuth plane is proposed. The design uses a monopole antenna as the main radiator surrounded by metasurface-based electronically reconfigurable reflector elements designed for the sub-6GHz range. The reflector elements use a reconfigurable capacitively loaded loop (CLL) which can be electronically activated to work as an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC). The design offers a digitally controllable directional radiation pattern covering all 360° in the azimuth plane with a step-size of 30°, a directional gain of ≥ 4.98 dBi and a high front-to-back lobe ratio (FBR) of ≥ 14.9 dB. The compact and modular nature of the design combined with the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and 3D-printing makes the design low-cost and easier to integrate with various internet of thing (IoT) applications.

In this paper, a novel terahertz (THz) spectroscopy technique and a new graphene-based sensor is proposed. The proposed sensor consists of a graphene-based metasurface (MS) that operates in reflection mode over a broad range of frequency band (0.2 -6 THz) and can detect relative permittivity of up to 4 with a resolution of 0.1 and a thickness ranging from 5 μm to 600 μm with a resolution of 0.5 μm. To the best of author’s knowledge, such a THz sensor with such capabilities has not been reported yet. Additionally, an equivalent circuit of the novel unit cell is derived and compared with two conventional grooved structures to showcase the superiority of the proposed unit cell. The proposed spectroscopy technique utilizes some unique spectral features of a broadband reflection wave including Accumulated Spectral power (ASP) and Averaged Group Delay (AGD), which are independent to resonance frequencies and can operate over a broad range of spectrum. ASP and AGD can be combined to analyse the magnitude and phase of the reflection diagram as a coherent technique for sensing purposes. This enables the capability to distinguish between different analytes with high precision which, to the best of author’s knowledge, has been accomplished for the first time.

In this paper, a single-layer planar antenna with vertical polarization and omni-directional radiation is proposed for wearable applications. The antenna consists of two identical shorted patches which are face-to-face located and fed by a microstrip line at the center. Due to the structural symmetry, the current distribution and electric-field distribution are symmetrical regarding the feed, which result in vertical linear polarization normal to the antenna and omni-directional radiation pattern in the azimuthal plane. To verify the design concept, an antenna prototype operating at 2.45 GHz is designed, fabricated and tested. Measured results concur well with the simulations, showing that the antenna has a good impedance matching, omnidirectional radiation pattern, and vertical polarization in the band of interest. The proposed antenna can be a good candidate for wearable and other wireless communication systems.

Here, we first aim to explain practical considerations to design and implement a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in the sub-6 GHz band and then, to demonstrate its real-world performance. The wave manipulation procedure is explored with a discussion on relevant electromagnetic (EM) concepts and backgrounds. Based on that, the RIS is designed and fabricated to operate at the center frequency of 3.5 GHz. The surface is composed of 2430 unit cells where the engineered reflecting response is obtained by governing the microscopic characteristics of the conductive patches printed on each unit cell. To achieve this goal, the patches are not only geometrically customized to properly reflect the local waves, but also are equipped with specific varactor diodes to be able to reconfigure their response when it is required. An equivalent circuit model is presented to analytically evaluate the unit cell’s performance with a method to measure the unit cell’s characteristics from the macroscopic response of the RIS. The patches are printed on six standard-size substrates which then placed together to make a relatively big aperture with approximate planar dimensions of 120 W 120 cm2. The manufactured RIS possesses a control unit with a custom-built system that can control the response of the reflecting surface by regulating the performance of the varactor diode on each printed patch across the structure. Furthermore, with an introduction of our test-bed system, the functionality of the developed RIS in an indoor real-world scenario is assessed. Finally, we showcase the capability of the RIS in hand to reconfigure itself in order to anomalously reflect the incoming EM waves toward the direction of interest in which a receiver could be experiencing poor coverage.

A reconfigurable metamaterial-inspired unit cell is proposed that can be reconfigured to behave either as a perfect magnetic conductor (PMC) or as a perfect electric conductor (PEC) and its application to waveguide miniaturisation is demonstrated. The unit cell is designed to operate in the sub-6 GHz band at 3:6 GHz with a PMC bandwidth of 150 MHz and has a simple construction that makes the design easy to fabricate. The phase response of the reconfigurable unit cell is presented and a prototype design of a miniaturised waveguide using the proposed unit cell is also proposed. The performance and field distribution of the waveguide are analysed which demonstrate the existence of a pass-band spanning 160 MHz below the cutoff frequency and the presence of a quasi TEM mode.

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