ASIC-Enabled Programmable Metasurfaces—Part 1: Design and Characterization

A multifunctional and reconfigurable programmable metasurface (PMSF) is presented in this work that is enabled by an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The enabling ASIC integrates control, digital-to-analog converters, and loading elements (LEs) to programmatically alter the response of the PMSF unit cells while minimizing power consumption and cost. These programmable unit cells subsequently comprise a larger PMSF that provides control of the reflected magnitude and phase for a given incident wave for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. With this ability, the reflected wave can be set to zero, and both polarizations can be perfectly absorbed simultaneously and independently up to oblique angles of incidence of 60° for TE polarization and 70° for TM polarization. The PMSF finds applications in smart wireless environments by providing the capability to redirect incident waves in a programmable manner, while also enabling the perfect absorption of incident interfering waves and programmatically synthesizing complex and polarization agile wavefronts. The accompanying article, Part 2, focuses on the wavefront synthesis and performance, while in this article, the design and characterization are presented.