1-Bit Mechanically Reconfigurable Metasurface as a Beam Splitter for Indoor Environments at 28 GHz

This letter presents a mechanically reconfigurable metasurface (MRM) designed to operate in the n257 FR2 5G band with the ability to provide a reconfigurable beam splitting. The MRM unit cell consists of a metallic rod with a metallic cone-shaped element at its end. The actuator is an electromagnet that provides 1-bit reconfiguration by modifying the position of the cone-shaped element. A prototype is experimentally assessed. The measurements reveal a phase shift of 180° <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm$</tex-math></inline-formula> 30° from 26.5 GHz to 29.5 GHz. Several beam configurations for the MRM have been measured where the scattering patterns show good agreement with the simulations. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed MRM, an indoor field trial has been performed. In a novel way, a simultaneous coverage of two different indoor zones has been achieved with an improvement of more than 10.9 dB of received average power.