Designing, building, and characterizing RF switch-based reconfigurable intelligent surfaces

In this paper, we present our experience designing, prototyping, and empirically characterizing RF Switch-based Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). Our RIS design comprises arrays of patch antennas, delay lines and programmable radio-frequency (RF) switches that enable almost-passive 3D beamforming, i.e., without active RF components. We implement this design using PCB technology and low-cost electronic components, and thoroughly validate our prototype in a controlled environment with high spatial resolution codebooks. Finally, we make available a large dataset with a complete characterization of our RIS and present the costs associated with reproducing our design.