Multi beam scanning programmable metasurface using miniaturized unit cells for 5G applications

This paper proposes a programmable reflective metasurface with a miniaturized unit cell that actively controls the scattered waves for achieving steerable multibeam radiation in sub-6 GHz 5G communication systems. The design uses array theory to provide the required phase shifts for various multibeam radiation patterns. The reconfigurability of the metasurface phase profile is attained by voltage-controlled varactor diodes embedded in the structure. Then, different unit cell arrangements are employed to achieve multibeam functionality where Pianoboard and Chessboard configurations provide one and two-dimensional multi beams, respectively. It turns out steerable multibeam radiation is achieved by dynamically change the dimension of the super unit cells. The reliability of the results is verified through analytical and numerical approaches. Moreover, the comparisons show that the proposed unit cell has more miniaturized size rather than the conventional cells, resulting in a better approximation for the ideally continuous phase profile identified by the generalized Snell’s law.