60 GHz Programmable Dynamic Metasurface Antenna (DMA) for Next-Generation Communication, Sensing, and Imaging Applications: From Concept to Prototype

Abstract

In this paper, for the first time we present the complete design of a dynamic metasurface antenna (DMA) array at the 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. First, a novel complementary electric inductive-capacitive (CELC) metamaterial element (unlike conventional rectangular CELC) is designed to resonate around 60.5 GHz. The proposed CELC meta-element in its resonance state manifests dispersive characteristics and exhibits significant left-handed metamaterial properties such as negative group refractive index, negative effective permittivity, and negative group velocity, which are thoroughly elucidated. A low-loss V-band planar substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) structure is designed at dominant $TE_{10}$ to excite the CELC meta-element by an in-plane magnetic field. Two PIN diodes are loaded in the small capacitive gap between the CELC meta-element and the SIW structure. The switching state of the PIN diodes readily renders the meta-element either radiating or non-radiating. The difference between radiating and non-radiating states is more than 11 dB. Consequently, a fully addressable digital tunable DMA element is formed. Then, a one-dimensional DMA is designed by embedding 16 such meta-elements into the upper conducting wall of the edge-fed SIW structure for electronic steering with high gain, high radiation efficiency, and low side lobe levels. The radiation state of each CELC meta-element is dynamically controlled through a high-speed field programmable gate array (FPGA). The DC biasing network for PIN diodes at such high frequency is meticulously designed and integrated using 4-layer standard printed circuit board (PCB) technology. The parallelized biasing network of PIN diodes through a high-speed FPGA enables agile dynamic control over the radiation pattern of the entire digitally coded metasurface aperture. Versatile beam synthesis (such as narrow beams, wide beams, and multiple beams) is achieved based on different digital coding combinations. The prototypes of the single DMA element and 16-element 1-dimensional DMA array are fabricated and verified through practical measurements. Simulated and measured results show good agreement. The beam-switching agility is quantified and observed to be within 5 ns, indicating significant promise for mmWave applications with ultra-low latency. The proposed DMA is a potential enabler to unfold a diverse range of next-generation mmWave wireless applications such as agile electronic beam-steering, adaptive beamforming and beam-shaping, holographic computational imaging, mmWave industrial wireless communication, cognitive radars, as well as integrated sensing and communication (ISAC).