Nanowerk  April 22, 2023
Polarization conversion and beam scanning metasurfaces are commonly used to reduce polarization mismatch and direct electromagnetic waves in a specific direction to improve the strength of a wireless signal. However, identifying suitable active and mechanically reconfigurable metasurfaces for polarization conversion and beam scanning is a considerable challenge, and the reported metasurfaces have narrow scanning ranges, are expensive, and cannot be independently controlled. Researchers in South Korea proposed a reconfigurable transmissive metasurface combined with a scissor and rotation actuator for independently controlling beam scanning and polarization conversion functions. They constructed metasurface with rotatable unit cells (UCs) that could switch the polarization state between right-handed and left-handed circular polarization by flipping the UCs to reverse their phase variation. Using the scissor actuator to linearly change the distance between the UCs they demonstrated independent beam scanning. According to the researchers their numerical and experimental results confirmed that the metasurface they proposed can perform beam scanning in the range of 28° for both the positive and negative regions of a radiation pattern at an operational frequency of 10.5 GHz… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Schematic of the reconfigurable transmissive metasurface … Credit: Microsystems & Nanoengineering volume 10, Article number: 40 (2024)Â