Optimal Active and Reconfigurable Meta-Sphere Design for Metamaterial-Enhanced Magnetic Induction Communications

The magnetic induction (MI) technique enables wireless communications in extreme environments. However, the existing MI systems rely on large antennas and high power, which is not suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) and other mobile devices. Although the new metamaterial-enhanced MI (
$\text{M}^{2}\text{I}$
) technique can theoretically enhance the MI signal by 30 dB, none of the existing real-world systems achieve the performance due to: 1) the inherent metamaterial loss is significant; 2) the complicated metamaterial structure is not optimized; and 3) an
$\text{M}^{2}\text{I}$
system with fixed parameters cannot keep the optimal performance in dynamic environments. In this article, an active and reconfigurable meta-sphere is designed, optimized, and implemented to approach the theoretical
$\text{M}^{2}\text{I}$
enhancement bound. Specifically, the new
$\text{M}^{2}\text{I}$
meta-sphere is realized by a spherical array of active and reconfigurable coil units. Given fixed meta-sphere size and power constraints, there exist complicated trade-offs among coil number, coil size, and the power consumption. Based on the theoretical design, the prototype of the active and reconfigurable
$\text{M}^{2}\text{I}$
meta-sphere system is implemented and tested. Significant power gain and range extension are proved through comprehensive analytical deduction, COMSOL Multiphysics-based simulations, and real-world experiments.