Metasurface antenna with thermally controlled recon gurable states: a simulation study

Abstract

In this work, a simulation study of a meta- surface antenna demonstrates a recon gurable con- ductive topology that alters the radiation characteris- tics of the antenna. Surrogate resistance, inductance, and capacitance values are used to model the conduc- tivity change mimicking the response of micro-heaters forcing metal-insulator-transitions in vanadium diox- ide switches. These switches connect sub-wavelength metallic patches arrayed across the surface of the aper- ture (i.e. metasurface). This enables a thermally con- trolled conductive topology as a mechanism to ma- nipulate the radiation characteristics of the metasur- face for desired performance, e.g. frequency, polariza- tion, radiation pattern. In this work, frequency agility and beam pattern recon gurability are demonstrated through simulations.