Improved Performance of a 1-Bit RIS by Using Two Switches per Bit Implementation

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) are an enabling technology widely investigated towards 6G. The viability of large active metasurfaces is constrained by the RF performance, cost, and power consumption. The number of switches per unit cell is a key design parameter that designers aim to minimize following cost and power consumption drivers. However, an efficient use of the aperture is ultimately required and although a one-to-one correspondence between number of switches and phase-quantization bits seems intuitive, one may question its impact. Here we present a full-wave evaluation of a 30 × 30 1-bit reflective RIS, implemented considering two pin diodes per unit cell. The RIS allows scanning up to 60 degrees from 28 to 29 GHz with a maximum aperture efficiency of 22%. This superior performance provides tantalizing evidence that the multiple switches per bit approach should not be discarded a priori due to its apparent higher complexity.