Nonvolatile 1-bit Intelligent Reflective Metasurface for RF Wave Manipulation and Control

Abstract

Semiconductor switches have played a crucial role in electronically reconfigurable circuits and systems. However, their power consumption, especially static power dissipation is still a major challenge. As the number of switches increases in modern wireless communication and sensing systems, such as reconfigurable antenna arrays and large intelligent reflective surfaces for 5G wireless communications and microwave holography, static power consumption becomes enormous, resulting in low system power efficiency and requiring thermal dissipation management, which not only hinders their applications but also increases operational costs. To address this issue, nonvolatile switches enabled reconfigurable $6\times 6$ metasurface with zero static power consumption is demonstrated. We also report the fabrication and characterization of the nonvolatile switch that shows promising performance for high endurance. By controlling the switch states on the metasurface, the reflected electromagnetic wave can be effectively manipulated without any static power supply.