Chaotic Noncoherent SWIPT in Multi-Functional RIS-Aided Systems

In this letter, we investigate the design of chaotic signal-based transmit waveforms in a multi-functional reconfigurable intelligent surface (MF-RIS)-aided set-up for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. We propose a differential chaos shift keying-based MF-RIS-aided set-up, where the MF-RIS is partitioned into three non-overlapping surfaces. The elements of the first sub-surface perform energy harvesting (EH), which in turn, provide the required power to the other two sub-surfaces responsible for transmission and reflection of the incident signal. By considering a frequency selective scenario and a realistic EH model, we characterize the chaotic MF-RIS-aided system in terms of its EH performance and the associated bit error rate. Thereafter, we characterize the harvested energy-bit error rate trade-off and derive a lower bound on the number of elements required to operate in the EH mode. Accordingly, we propose novel transmit waveform designs to demonstrate the importance of the choice of appropriate system parameters in the context of achieving self-sustainability.