Functionalized Metasurfaces enabling Frequency and Radiation Pattern Reconfigurability for Intelligent Antennas

In the next generation of wireless communications, the antenna systems are expected to undergo continuous and fast variations of the communication links characteristics. Due to the extreme performance requirements, conventional radiators with fixed properties and functionalities cannot represent a reliable solution. A new paradigm change in antenna design where the radiator characteristics are made reconfigurable at the physical layer is thus required. Here, we show how conformal metasurfaces wrapped around conventional wired antennas enable unprecedented electromagnetic behaviors, for achieving frequency, scattering, and pattern tunability, in view of the designs of intelligent antennas whose properties can be shaped on demand depending on the characteristics of the functionalized coating metasurface.