Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Proof-of-Concept Multi-functional Microwave Metasurface using Static Loads

We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of a proof-of-concept reconfigurable multifunctional metasurface. Our implementation relies on a printed circuit board loaded with commercial-off-the-shelf resistors and capacitors (surface mount devices) to shape the metasurface response in the microwave regime spanning 4-12 GHz. In a broader vision, these static loads are to be replaced by computer-controlled chips, thus realizing a software-defined metamaterial vision. In the current implementation, the same type of board is loaded with different combinations of resistive and reactive loads, to model different configurations and realize the corresponding functionalities, such as absorption, steering, and polarizing. Our anechoic chamber measurements indicate good agreement between simulation and experiment.