A Varactor-Based Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Concept for 5G/6G mm-Wave Applications
Paper in proceeding, 2024

A varactor-based reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) concept is presented for low-cost, high-precision beamforming of 5G/6G mm-waves. To enable this, we maximize the RIS unit cell (UC) phase coverage by (i) employing a varactor diode-tuned slotted-patch UC, and (ii) adding a metallic loop and via fence across the UC boundary, which also improves the bandwidth and angular insensitivity. In an infinite RIS environment, the UC exhibits a phase coverage of 330.7 degrees while maintaining the insensitivity of reflection coefficients up to 50-degree elevation angle. This UC design demonstrates a phase coverage that exceeds 315 degrees with under 0.7-dB reflection loss across a 11.6% bandwidth, where the capacitance tuning ratio of the considered commercial off-the-shelf varactor diode is only 1.8. A 15 × 15 RIS model with a 3-bit phase quantization is used for beam steering performance validation; it predicts the realized gain of 19.5 dBi for the 30-degree beam-steering direction at 28 GHz.

3-bit phase quantization

varactor diode

5G/6G mm-wave

reconfigurable intelligent surface

Author

Yuqing Zhu

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Artem Vilenskiy

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Oleg Iupikov

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Pavlo Krasov

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Thomas Emanuelsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Ericsson

Gregor Lasser

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Marianna Ivashina

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP 2024


9788831299091 (ISBN)

18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCAP 2024
Glasgow, United Kingdom,

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Signal Processing

DOI

10.23919/EuCAP60739.2024.10501072

More information

Latest update

9/27/2024