A Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for 5G Wireless Communication Applications

This paper outlines the design, fabrication, and characterization of a 5.8 GHz reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) suitable for 5G wireless communication applications. The proposed RIS can be deployed as a dynamically reconfigurable relay to steer the base station (BS) signal to desired directions, thereby eliminating shadow regions or improving the SNR at the receiver (user). The RIS prototype consists of a 16×10 array of patch antennas integrated with radio-frequency (RF) PIN diodes and uses a control circuit to realize the beam-steering functionality. The design features a planar, single layer topology that is compatible with future millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) RISs. The beamforming capability is evaluated with field tests.