Recent Developments of Transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: A Review

doi:10.12142/ZTECOM.202201004

ZTE Communications ›› 2022, Vol. 20 ›› Issue (1): 21-27.DOI: 10.12142/ZTECOM.202201004

• Special Topic • Previous Articles Next Articles

Recent Developments of Transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: A Review

TANG Junwen(), XU Shenheng(), YANG Fan, LI Maokun

Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Received:2022-01-24 Online:2022-03-25 Published:2022-04-06
About author:TANG Junwen (tjw17@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn) received the B.S. degree in electronic information engineering from Xidian University, China in 2017, and she is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree at Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China. Her current research interests include antenna theory and reconfigurable antenna.|XU Shenheng (shxu@tsinghua.edu.cn) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Southeast University, China in 2001 and 2004, respectively and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), USA in 2009. From 2000 to 2004, he was a research assistant with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Southeast University, China. From 2004 to 2011, he was a graduate student researcher and then became a post-doctoral researcher with the Antenna Research, Analysis, and Measurement Laboratory, UCLA. In 2012, he joined the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, as an associate professor. His current research interests include novel designs of high-gain antennas for advanced applications, artificial electromagnetic structures, and electromagnetic and antenna theories.|YANG Fan received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, China and the Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), USA. He joined the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Mississippi, USA, as an assistant professor and was promoted to an associate professor in 2009. In 2011, he joined the Electronic Engineering Department, Tsinghua University, as a professor. He has authored or coauthored more than 300 journal articles and conference articles, six book chapters, and five books. Dr. YANG is an ACES Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and a recipient of several prestigious awards and recognition, including the Young Scientist Awards of the 2005 URSI General Assembly and of the 2007 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Theory, the 2008 Junior Faculty Research Award of the University of Mississippi, the 2009 Inaugural IEEE Donald G. Dudley Jr. Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the 2011 Recipient of Global Experts Program of China. He was the Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair of 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting. He is also an IEEE APS Distinguished Lecturer from 2018 to 2020. His current research interests include antennas, surface electromagnetics, computational electromagnetics and applied electromagnetic systems.|LI Maokun received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, China in 2002, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA in 2004 and 2007, respectively. After graduation, he worked as a senior research scientist at Schlumberger-Doll Research, USA. Since 2014, he has joined the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University. He has authored one book chapter, 50 journal articles and 120 conference proceedings, and held three patent applications. His research interests include fast algorithms in computational electromagnetics and their applications in antenna modeling, electromagnetic compatibility analysis, and inverse problems. Dr. LI was a recipient of the China National 1 000 Plan in 2014 and the 2017 IEEE Ulrich L. Rohde Innovative Conference Paper Award. He also serves as the Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal on Multiscale and Multiphysics Computational Techniques and Applied Computational Electromagnetic Society Journal, and the Guest Editor for the special issue on “Electromagnetic Inverse Problems for Sensing and Imaging” in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

Abstract

Abstract:

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is considered as one of the key technologies for the next-generation mobile communication systems. The transmissive RIS is able to achieve dynamic beamforming capability while transmitting an in-band RF signal through its aperture, and has promising prospects in various practical application scenarios. This paper reviews some of the latest developments of the transmissive RIS. The approaches for transmissive RIS designs are classified and described briefly. Numerous designs with different phase resolutions, such as 1-bit, 2-bit or continuous 360° phase shifts, are presented, with detailed discussions on their operating mechanisms and transmission performances. The design solutions for various transmissive RIS elements are summarized and compared.

Key words: antenna, mobile communications, phase shifter, RIS, transmitarray

TANG Junwen, XU Shenheng, YANG Fan, LI Maokun. Recent Developments of Transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: A Review[J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(1): 21-27.

Figures/Tables 6

Figure 1 Design approaches: (a) Rx-Tx structure; (b) stacked FSS structure

Figure 2 Schematics of single-polarized 1-bit transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) elements: (a) linear polarization in Ref. [14]; (b) linear-circular polarization conversion in Ref. [16]; (c) slot coupling structure in Ref. [19]; (d) variable resonance design in Ref. [23]

Figure 3 Schematics of the dual-linear polarized 1-bit transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) element designs: (a) two orthogonal radiating modes of the same radiator in Ref. [25]; (b) two sets of via-fed dipoles with parasitic dipoles in Ref. [27]

Figure 4 Schematics of the 2-bit transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) element designs: (a) dual polarization with five radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches in Refs. [28-29]; (b) O-slot patches loaded with four p-i-n diodes in Ref. [30]

Figure 5 Transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) element designs with 360° phase controlling: (a) two cascaded bridged-T phase shifters in Ref. [5]; (b) a 180° analog phase shifter combined with 1-bit phase shifter in Ref. [9]

Figure 6 Transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) element designs with 360° phase controlling: (a) an element with three resonant structures in Ref. [6]; (b) 5-layer stacked frequency selective surface (FSS) structure in Ref. [13]

References 37

1	LIASKOS C, NIE S, TSIOLIARIDOU A, et al. A new wireless communication paradigm through software-controlled metasurfaces [J]. IEEE communications magazine, 2018, 56(9): 162–169. DOI: 10.1109/MCOM.2018.1700659 DOI
2	TANG W, LI X, DAI J, et al. Wireless communications with programmable metasurface: transceiver design and experimental results [J]. China communications, 2019, 16(5): 46–61. DOI: 10.23919/J.CC.2019.05.004 DOI
3	DAI L, WANG B, WANG M, et al. Reconfigurable intelligent surface-based wireless communications: antenna design, prototyping, and experimental results [J]. IEEE access, 2020, 8: 45913–45923. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2977772 DOI
4	LAU J Y, HUM S V. A wideband reconfigurable transmitarray element [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2011, 60(3): 1303–1311. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2011.2180475 DOI
5	LAU J Y, HUM S V. Reconfigurable transmitarray design approaches for beamforming applications [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2012, 60(12): 5679–5689. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2012.2213054 DOI
6	LAU J Y, HUM S V. Analysis and characterization of a multipole reconfigurable transmitarray element [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2010, 59(1): 70–79. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2010.2090456 DOI
7	HUANG C, PAN W, MA X, et al. Using reconfigurable transmitarray to achieve beam-steering and polarization manipulation applications [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2015, 63(11): 4801–4810. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2015.2479648 DOI
8	HUANG C, PAN W, LUO X. Low-loss circularly polarized transmitarray for beam steering application [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2016, 64(10): 4471–4476. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2016.2586580 DOI
9	TANG J, XU S, YANG F, et al. Design and measurement of a reconfigurable transmitarray antenna with compact varactor-based phase shifters [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2021, 20(10): 1998–2002. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3101891 DOI
10	FRANK M, LURZ F, WEIGEL R, et al. Electronically reconfigurable 6× 6 element transmitarray at K-band based on unit cells with continuous phase range [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2019, 18(4): 796–800. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2019.2903338 DOI
11	BOCCIA L, RUSSO I, AMENDOLA G, et al. Multilayer antenna-filter antenna for beam-steering transmit-array applications [J]. IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, 2012, 60(7): 2287–2300. DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2012.2195673 DOI
12	REIS J R, COPNER N, HAMMOUDEH A, et al. FSS-inspired transmitarray for two-dimensional antenna beamsteering [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2016, 64(6): 2197–2206. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2016.2543802 DOI
13	REIS J R, CALDEIRINHA R F S, HAMMOUDEH A, et al. Electronically reconfigurable FSS-inspired transmitarray for 2-D beamsteering [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2017, 65(9): 4880–4885. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2017.2723087 DOI
14	CLEMENTE A, DUSSOPT L, SAULEAU R, et al. 1-bit reconfigurable unit cell based on PIN diodes for transmit-array applications in X-band [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2012, 60(5): 2260–2269. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2012.2189716 DOI
15	CLEMENTE A, DUSSOPT L, SAULEAU R, et al. Wideband 400-element electronically reconfigurable transmitarray in X band [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2013, 61(10): 5017–5027. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2013.2271493 DOI
16	DI PALMA L, CLEMENTE A, DUSSOPT L, et al. Experimental characterization of a circularly polarized 1 bit unit cell for beam steerable transmitarrays at Ka-band [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2018, 67(2): 1300–1305. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2018.2880095 DOI
17	PAN W, HUANG C, MA X, et al. A dual linearly polarized transmitarray element with 1-bit phase resolution in X-band [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2014, 14: 167–170. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2014.2358267 DOI
18	HUANG C, PAN W, MA X, et al. 1-bit reconfigurable circularly polarized transmitarray in X-band [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2015, 15: 448–451. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2015.2451697 DOI
19	WANG M, XU S, YANG F, et al. Design and measurement of a 1-bit reconfigurable transmitarray with subwavelength H-shaped coupling slot elements [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2019, 67(5): 3500–3504. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2019.2902676 DOI
20	WANG Y, XU S, YANG F, et al. A novel 1 bit wide-angle beam scanning reconfigurable transmitarray antenna using an equivalent magnetic dipole element [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2020, 68(7): 5691–5695. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2020.2964954 DOI
21	WANG M, XU S, YANG F, et al. A novel 1-bit reconfigurable transmitarray antenna using a C-shaped probe-fed patch element with broadened bandwidth and enhanced efficiency [J]. IEEE access, 2020, 8: 120124–120133. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3004435 DOI
22	XIAO Y, YANG F, XU S, et al. Design and implementation of a wideband 1-bit transmitarray based on a yagi-vivaldi unit cell [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2021 69(7): 4229–4234. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2020.3048496 DOI
23	NGUYEN B D, PICHOT C. Unit-cell loaded with PIN diodes for 1-bit linearly polarized reconfigurable transmitarrays [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2018, 18(1): 98–102. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2018.2881555 DOI
24	WANG M, XU S, YANG F, et al. A novel 1-bit dual-linear polarized reconfigurable transmitarray element using double-layer dipoles [C]//IEEE Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC). IEEE, 2019: 685–687. DOI: 10.1109/APMC46564.2019.9038225 DOI
25	MUNINA I, TURALCHUK P, VEREVKIN A, et al. A study of C-band 1-bit reconfigurable dual-polarized transmitarray [C]//13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). EurAAP, 2019: 1–5
26	PHAM K, SAULEAU R, CLEMENTE A, et al. Electronically reconfigurable unit-cell and transmitarray in dual-linear polarization at Ka-band [C]//13th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). EurAAP, 2019: 1–4
27	WANG Y, XU S, YANG F, et al. 1 bit dual-linear polarized reconfigurable transmitarray antenna using asymmetric dipole elements with parasitic bypass dipoles [J]. IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation, 2021, 69(2): 1188–1192. DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2020.3005713 DOI
28	CHENG C C, ABBASPOUR-TAMIJANI A. Study of 2-bit antenna-filter-antenna elements for reconfigurable millimeter-wave lens arrays [J]. IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, 2006, 54(12): 4498–4506. DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2006.885993 DOI
29	CHENG C C, LAKSHMINARAYANAN B, ABBASPOUR-TAMIJANI A. A programmable lens-array antenna with monolithically integrated MEMS switches [J]. IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, 2009, 57(8): 1874–1884. DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2009.2025422 DOI
30	DIABY F, CLEMENTE A, DI PALMA L, et al. Design of a 2-bit unit-cell for electronically reconfigurable transmitarrays at Ka-band [C]//47th European Microwave Conference (EuMC). EuMA, 2017: 1321–1324. DOI: 10.23919/EuMC.2017.8231095 DOI
31	TANG J, XU S, YANG F. Design of a 2.5-D 2-bit reconfigurable transmitarray element for 5G mmwave applications [C]//IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting. IEEE, 2020: 631–632. DOI: 10.1109/IEEECONF35879.2020.9330153 DOI
32	WU B, SUTINJO A, POTTER M E, et al. On the selection of the number of bits to control a dynamic digital MEMS reflectarray [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2008, 7: 183–186. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2008.920908 DOI
33	YANG H, YANG F, XU S, et al. A study of phase quantization effects for reconfigurable reflectarray antennas [J]. IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters, 2017, 16: 302–305. DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2016.2574118 DOI
34	WU Q, ZHANG R. Beamforming optimization for wireless network aided by intelligent reflecting surface with discrete phase shifts [J]. IEEE transactions on communications, 2020, 68(3): 1838–1851. DOI: 10.1109/TCOMM.2019.2958916 DOI
35	BUCKMASTER J G, LEE T H. An electronically steerable millimeter-wave reflectarray for wireless power delivery [C]//50th European Microwave Conference (EuMC). EuMA, 2021: 514–517. DOI: 10.23919/EuMC48046.2021.9338208 DOI
36	ZENG S, ZHANG H, DI B, et al. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted wireless coverage extension: RIS orientation and location optimization [J]. Communications letters, 2020, 25(1): 269–273. DOI: 10.1109/LCOMM.2020.3025345 DOI
37	MILLER C L, DMOCHOWSKI P A, SMITH P J. Efficient channel estimation for RIS [C]//IEEE International Conference on Communications. IEEE, 2021: 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/ICC42927.2021.9500469 DOI

[1]	ZHOU Yiheng, ZENG Wei, ZHENG Qingfang, LIU Zhilong, CHEN Jianping. A Survey on Task Scheduling of CPU-GPU Heterogeneous Cluster [J]. ZTE Communications, 2024, 22(3): 83-90.
[2]	LIU Mengyu, ZHANG Yang, JIN Yasheng, ZHI Kangda, PAN Cunhua. Towards Near-Field Communications for 6G: Challenges and Opportunities [J]. ZTE Communications, 2024, 22(1): 3-15.
[3]	LU Zhizheng, HAN Yu, JIN Shi. Impacts of Model Mismatch and Array Scale on Channel Estimation for XL-HRIS-Aided Systems [J]. ZTE Communications, 2024, 22(1): 24-33.
[4]	ZHAO Yaqiong, KE Hongqin, XU Wei, YE Xinquan, CHEN Yijian. RIS-Assisted Cell-Free MIMO: A Survey [J]. ZTE Communications, 2024, 22(1): 77-86.
[5]	ZHU Zhihao, ZHANG Yueping. Differential Quasi-Yagi Antenna and Array [J]. ZTE Communications, 2023, 21(3): 37-44.
[6]	WANG Yiji, WEN Dingzhu, MAO Yijie, SHI Yuanming. RIS-Assisted Federated Learning in Multi-Cell Wireless Networks [J]. ZTE Communications, 2023, 21(1): 25-37.
[7]	FAN Guotian, WANG Zhibin. Intelligent Antenna Attitude Parameters Measurement Based on Deep Learning SSD Model [J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(S1): 36-43.
[8]	SUN Shuyi, WEN Geyi. Optimal Design of Wireless Power Transmission Systems Using Antenna Arrays [J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(2): 19-27.
[9]	SHEN Jun, ZHAO Tianxiang, LIU Xueguan. Polarization Reconfigurable Patch Antenna for Wireless Power Transfer Related Applications [J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(2): 37-42.
[10]	HOU Xiaolin, LI Xiang, WANG Xin, CHEN Lan, SUYAMA Satoshi. Some Observations and Thoughts about Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Application for 5G Evolution and 6G [J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(1): 14-20.
[11]	JIAN Mengnan, ZHANG Nan, CHEN Yijian. RIS: Spatial‑Wideband Effect Analysis and Off‑Grid Channel Estimation [J]. ZTE Communications, 2022, 20(1): 57-62.
[12]	YE Lianghua, CAO Yunfei, ZHANG Xiuyin. Multibeam Antenna Based on Butler Matrix for 3G/LTE/5G/B5G Base Station Applications [J]. ZTE Communications, 2020, 18(3): 12-19.
[13]	LI Yezhen, REN Yongli, YANG Fan, XU Shenheng, ZHANG Jiannian. A Novel 28 GHz Phased Array Antenna for 5G Mobile Communications [J]. ZTE Communications, 2020, 18(3): 20-25.
[14]	CHANG Su-Wei, LIN Chueh-Jen, TSAI Wen-Tsai, HUNG Tzu-Chieh, HUANG Po-Chia. Design of Millimeter-Wave Antenna-in-Package (AiP) for 5G NR [J]. ZTE Communications, 2020, 18(3): 26-32.
[15]	HE Yejun, JIANG Jiachun, ZHANG Long, LI Wenting, WONG Sai-Wai, DENG Wei, CHI Baoyong. Leaky-Wave Antennas for 5G/B5G Mobile Communication Systems: A Survey [J]. ZTE Communications, 2020, 18(3): 3-11.

Recent Developments of Transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: A Review

RichHTML

PDF

Knowledge

Abstract

Cite this article

share this article

Figures/Tables 6

References 37

Related Articles 15

Recommended Articles

Metrics