Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces with Dual-Band Dual-Polarization Capabilities for Arbitrary Beam Synthesis Beyond Beam Steering

A surface-wave-assisted, dual-band, circularly polarized reconfigurable intelligent surface is proposed that allows arbitrary beam-shaping capability within the [4.35 GHz–4.5 GHz] and [11.8 GHz–12.3 GHz] frequency bands. In particular, alongside the proposed physical design of the surface, a genetic algorithm-based design framework is introduced to enable the synthesis of complex radiation patterns beyond simple beam steering. It is shown that the phase profiles obtained from the proposed optimization scheme naturally lead to the excitation of surface waves, which facilitate arbitrary beam shaping by satisfying the local power conservation condition between the normally impinging and arbitrarily reflected waves. To physically construct the proposed surface, cascaded symmetric unit cells are employed to facilitate circular polarization operation and realize dual-band operation. Furthermore, varactor diodes are incorporated into the design of unit cells so that the reflection phase can be independently and continuously tuned across the two frequency bands, with a tuning range of 300 degrees. The versatility of the proposed surface is demonstrated through design examples that achieve (i) unidirectional beam steering, (ii) multi-directional beam steering, and (iii) sector-beam formation within each frequency band.