Boosting Wireless Communication Links with Multiband Metasurfaces

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), an increasing number of smart applications have emerged, encompassing various frequency bands such as Sub 6GHz, satellite bands, and millimeter wave bands. However, the quality of communication has been consistently affected by link attenuation due to the non-line-of-sight environment and the high-frequency range. Recently, metasurfaces have emerged as a promising method to enhance communication links. Nevertheless, their focus has mainly been on a single frequency band, limiting their potential for multi-band applications. This paper proposes a tunable intelligent metasurface constructed from cost-effective materials, capable of operating in multiple frequency bands. The key approach involves introducing meta-atoms with different size parameters on the surface and leveraging the resonant characteristics between units. By optimizing the size parameters, the number of meta-atoms required is significantly reduced, resulting in reduced costs and control complexity. The preliminary prototype of the metasurface demonstrates direction-dependent reflection for circularly polarized waves across three frequency bands: 5.69-5.96GHz, 11.25-20.86GHz, and 23.37-27.56GHz. Furthermore, this metasurface structure can be expanded to accommodate additional multiple frequency bands.