Unit Cell Design for Intelligent Reflecting and Refracting Surface (IRS) With Independent Electronic Control Capability

This letter presents a design of an electronically reconfigurable unit cell (UC), that can be used in the construction of intelligent reflecting and refracting surfaces (IR
²
Ss) for future 6G communication. It can independently perform beam forming or beam steering in both reflection and refraction modes. The IR
²
S UC responds separately to TE and TM incidences. The UC utilizes PIN diodes to obtain two phase states, 0° and 180° (with 1-bit phase resolution), simultaneously in the reflection and refraction modes. Prototypes of the IR
²
S UC have been fabricated and characterized in a waveguide measurement, showing excellent agreement between simulation and measurement at a center frequency of 5.9 GHz.