On RIS Macromodeling of a Large Holographic-Inspired Beamforming Panel

Paper in proceeding, 2026

Beamforming metasurfaces have opened up new research avenues in the design of next-generation wireless networks, especially in the potential deployment of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) for 5G and beyond. Challenges, however, remain to be addressed regarding a robust unit cell (UC) design for these panels that can guarantee angular reciprocity. Moreover, there are open questions on the viability of a low-complexity surrogate model that can not only obviate the need for bulky full-wave simulations but can also guarantee an EM-compliant model for fast system integration. Along this line, by selecting a viable varactor-based UC design and a surrogate macromodel for it from the literature, this study first presents a holographic-inspired beamforming panel. Then it applies macromodeling (MM) to both UC characterization and array performance prediction of the panel. Specific comments on full-wave simulation precision vs runtime of a commercial EM solver are also made, and comparisons with macromodeling are drawn.