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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 20079

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Naser Ojaroudi Parchin

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH10 5DT, UK
Interests: MIMO/diversity antennas; 5G/6G antennas; MM-wave phased arrays; multi-band/UWB antennas; RFID antennas; metamaterials and metasurfaces; Fabry resonators; fractal antennas; band-pass/band-stop microwave filters; reconfigurable structures; power amplifiers; electromagnetic wave propagation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mohammad Ojaroudi

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Guest Editor

Inria Lille-Nord Europe Centre, Lille, France
Interests: multi-band/UWB antennas; MIMO antennas; phased arrays; metamaterials; intelligent metasurfaces; smart-sensing; microwave cancer detection; computational brain-imaging

Prof. Dr. Raed A. Abd-Alhameed

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Interests: energy-efficient front-end design; radio frequency; energy harvesting; communications systems; 5G communications; sensor design; localisation-based services; signal processing; optimisation process; MIMO system design; health hazards; propagations, antennas and electromagnetic computational techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metamaterials and metasurfaces have recently attracted progressively increasing attention due to their anomalous and largely flexible properties. Their performance mainly depends on their subwavelength separation and geometric parameters. Metamaterials comprise a class of artificial materials whose physical properties can be engineered to exhibit various desired characteristics. Metasurface is a 2D metamaterial whose thickness is well below the wavelength of the impinging lights. Metamaterials and metasurfaces have unique interface transmission and reflection properties resulting from surface impedance, which can provide multiple advanced functionalities such as light focusing, hologram generation, polarization control, etc. Their extremely small hardware footprint enables their cost-effective embedding in various components of the environment. In recent years, they have emerged as a powerful technology with a broad range of applications, However, there are many challenges yet to be addressed in order for them to fulfil their potential in practical applications.

This Special Issue covers all aspects of metamaterials and metasurfaces. It also aims to highlight the exciting developments, ongoing trends, and latest achievements in their design and construction.

Submissions can focus on conceptual and applied research in topics including, but not limited to:

Multi-functional metamaterials and metasurfaces;
Metamaterial and metasurface antenna for massive MIMO;
Metamaterial and metasurface antenna array decoupling;
Polarization control with metamaterials and metasurfaces;
Physics of metamaterials and metasurfaces;
Intelligent reconfigurable metamaterials and metasurfaces;
Metamaterial-based adaptative beamforming;
Frequency selective surface (FSS)-inspired antennas;
Fractal metamaterial absorber;
Metasurface-based devices and applications;
Metamaterial superstrate and substrate;
Dynamic metasurface antennas for 5G/6G;
Tunable metamaterial-based microwave filters;
Focusing, imaging, and sensing techniques;
Prototyping and experimentation of metamaterials and metasurfaces.

Submissions should be of a high quality for an international journal and should not have been submitted or published elsewhere. However, extended versions of conference papers that show significant improvement (minimum of over 50%) can be considered for review in this Special Issue. In addition, we welcome review papers that cover the subjects of this Special Issue.

Dr. Naser Ojaroudi Parchin
Dr. Mohammad Ojaroudi
Prof. Dr. Raed A. Abd-Alhameed
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 162 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue “Metamaterials and Metasurfaces”

by Naser Ojaroudi Parchin, Mohammad Ojaroudi and Raed A. Abd-Alhameed

Electronics 2023, 12(11), 2420; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12112420 - 26 May 2023

Viewed by 737

Abstract

Metamaterials and metasurfaces have emerged as promising technologies in the field of antennas and wireless applications [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

Research

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13 pages, 4296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Analysis of the Influence of Fabrication Process Uncertainty on Terahertz Metasurface Quality

by Przemyslaw Lopato, Michal Herbko, Paulina Gora, Ulrich Mescheder, Andras Kovacs and Alexander Filbert

Electronics 2023, 12(10), 2198; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12102198 - 12 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1204

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the influence of fabrication process uncertainty on terahertz metasurface quality. The focus was on the effect of metasurface fabrication inaccuracy on resonances. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to study the effect of the metasurface fabrication process on its resonant frequency. The terahertz split ring resonator-based metasurface is under consideration. Using a numerical model, the influence of the uncertainty of various geometrical parameters obtained during the fabrication process (mainly layer deposition, photolithography, and etching processes) is analyzed according to the resonance of the designed metasurface. The influence of the following parameters causes a shift of resonant frequencies of the considered metasurface: etching deviation e, metallization thickness t_Al and SiO₂ layer thickness t_SiO2. The quality of the metasurface affected by the variations of obtained geometrical parameters was determined by the deviation of resonant frequency Δf_r. The developed numerical model was verified by THz-TDS (terahertz time-domain spectroscopy) measurements of the fabricated structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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14 pages, 3143 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Small Signal Anti-Jamming Scheme Based on a DMA Linear Array under Strong Jamming

by Yuankai Wang, Liang Jin, Yangming Lou and Yinuo Hao

Electronics 2023, 12(6), 1389; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12061389 - 14 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1108

Abstract

Considering the difficulty of receiving small signals under strong electromagnetic jamming, this paper proposes a small-signal anti-jamming scheme based on a single dynamic metamaterial antenna (DMA). Our scheme uses the dynamic-adjustable characteristics of the DMA to perform spatial filtering at the antenna radio frequency (RF) front-end, to suppress strong jamming signals in advance and to improve the receiver’s ability to receive and demodulate small signals. Specifically, we take the maximization of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as the optimization goal, transform the fractional non-convex objective function model into a quasi-convex semi-definite relaxation (SDR) problem, and use the Charnes-Cooper (CC) transform algorithm to find the optimal DMA array-element codeword-state matrix. Simulation results show that DMA has better spatial-beamforming capability than traditional antenna arrays, and the proposed scheme can better resist strong jamming. DMA realizes the effect of digital beamforming at the back end of the traditional communication system, has the advantages of traditional digital-spatial filtering, and further improves the receiver’s ability to receive and demodulate small signals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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10 pages, 4182 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Negative Group Delay Metamaterials Based on Split-Ring Resonators and Their Application

by Zheng Liu, Jian Zhang, Xue Lei, Jun Gao, Zhijian Xu and Tianpeng Li

Electronics 2023, 12(4), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12041064 - 20 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1508

Abstract

In this report, negative group delay (NGD) metamaterials based on split-ring resonators (SRRs) are discussed. A theoretical analysis is proposed to calculate the equivalent circuit parameters, NGD values, and S21 amplitudes of two types of SRRs. Metamaterials made from tantalum nitride are simulated, and the parameters of the two types of SRRs are discussed. Prototypes of metamaterials were fabricated and tested. Measured real-world results were found to be consistent with theoretical and simulated predictions. For EC-SRR, a negative group delay of up to −0.1 ns was achieved at 12–13 GHz. For SR-SRR of the same size as the out ring of EC-SRR, a negative group delay of up to −0.04 ns was achieved, with a loss lower than 2.7 dB. The proposed SRRs were applied to continuous transverse stub (CTS) antenna to reduce the beam walk. The simulation shows that the beam walk can be reduced using the proposed metamaterial. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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16 pages, 7573 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Ultra-Broadband Angular-Stable Reflective Linear to Cross Polarization Converter

by Bianmei Zhang, Chenghui Zhu, Ran Zhang, Xiaofan Yang, Ye Wang and Xiaoming Liu

Electronics 2022, 11(21), 3487; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11213487 - 27 Oct 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1290

Abstract

An ultra-broadband angular-stable reflective linear to cross polarization converter based on metasurface is developed. The unit cell of the converter is formed by a slant end-loaded H-shaped resonator. The slant arrangement is to create polarization conversion. The end-loaded stubs are useful for miniaturization and the slots are responsible for enlarging bandwidth. The simulated results show that the polarization conversion ratio of the proposed design is better than 90% in the range of 9.83–29.37 GHz, corresponding to a relative bandwidth of 99.69%. It is also demonstrated that the mean polarization conversion ratio is larger than 80% even though the incident angle reaches 40° for both x-polarized and y-polarized incidences. To validate the design, a prototype of the proposed structure is fabricated and measured. Satisfactory agreement has been observed between measurement and simulation. Compared with the designs in the literature, the developed converter exhibits good performance of high efficiency, ultra-broadband and angular stability. Potential applications can be expected in polarization-controlled devices, stealth surfaces, antennas, etc. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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15 pages, 3886 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Analysis of Polarization-Independent, Wide-Angle, Broadband Metasurface Absorber Using Resistor-Loaded Split-Ring Resonators

by Abdulrahman Ahmed Ghaleb Amer, Syarfa Zahirah Sapuan, Abdullah Alzahrani, Nasimuddin Nasimuddin, Ali Ahmed Salem and Sherif S. M. Ghoneim

Electronics 2022, 11(13), 1986; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11131986 - 24 Jun 2022

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2506

Abstract

Metasurface (MS) absorbers with polarization-insensitivity and wide-angle reception features have attracted much attention due to their unique absorption property. A polarization-insensitive broadband MS absorber structure, having wide-angle reception based on square split-ring resonators (SSRRs) and loaded with lumped resistors, is proposed in this paper. The proposed MS unit cell consists of a fixed-thickness FR4 dielectric substrate and a variable air-thickness substrate. The simulation results show that the proposed MS absorber is stable across a wide angular range for both normal and oblique incidences. Furthermore, the simulated results show that some parameters, such as unit-cell geometry and lumped resistors, can be varied to improve the performance of the MS absorber. The experimental results indicate that the proposed MS absorber can be achieved an absorption higher than 90% across the frequency range from 1.89 GHz to 6.85 GHz with a relative bandwidth of 113%, which is in agreement with simulation results. Thus, the proposed MS absorber can be more suitable in RF energy harvesting or wireless power transfer applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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13 pages, 4481 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Inverse Design Framework for Isotropic Metasurfaces Based on Representation Learning

by Jian Zhang, Jin Yuan, Chuanzhen Li and Bin Li

Electronics 2022, 11(12), 1844; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11121844 - 10 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1795

Abstract

A hybrid framework for solving the non-uniqueness problem in the inverse design of isomorphic metasurfaces is proposed. The framework consists of a representation learning (RL) module and a variational autoencoder-particle swarm optimization (VAE-PSO) algorithm module. The RL module is used to reduce the complex high-dimensional space into a low-dimensional space with obvious features, with the purpose of eliminating the many-to-one relationship between the original design space and response space. The VAE-PSO algorithm first encodes all meta-atoms into a continuous latent space through VAE and then applies PSO to search for an optimized latent vector whose corresponding metasurface fulfills the target response. This framework gives the solution paradigm of the ideal non-uniqueness situation, simplifies the complexity of the network, improves the running speed of the PSO algorithm, and obtains the global optimal solution with 94% accuracy on the test set. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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16 pages, 4707 KiB

Open AccessArticle

High-Performance Magnetoinductive Directional Filters

by Artem Voronov, Richard R. A. Syms and Oleksiy Sydoruk

Electronics 2022, 11(6), 845; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics11060845 - 08 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1671

Abstract

Multiport magnetoinductive (MI) devices with directional filter properties are presented. Design equations are developed and solved using wave analysis and dispersion theory, and it is shown that high-performance directional filters can be realised for use both in MI systems with complex, frequency-dependent impedance and in conventional systems with real impedance. Wave analysis is used to reduce the complexity of circuit equations. High-performance MI structures combining directional and infinite rejection filtering are demonstrated, as well as multiple-passband high-rejection filtering. A new method for improving filtering performance through multipath loss compensation is described. Methods for constructing tuneable devices using toroidal ferrite-cored transformers are proposed and demonstrated, and experimental results for tuneable MI directional filters are shown to agree with theoretical models. Limitations are explored, and power handling sufficient for HF RFID applications is demonstrated, despite the use of ferrite materials. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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17 pages, 1455 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Reconfigurable Filter Based on a Single Electromagnetic Bandgap Honey Comb Geometry Cell

by Andre Tavora de Albuquerque Silva, Claudio Ferreira Dias, Eduardo Rodrigues de Lima, Gustavo Fraidenraich and Larissa Medeiros de Almeida

Electronics 2021, 10(19), 2390; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10192390 - 30 Sep 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1529

Abstract

This work presents a new unit cell electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) design based on HoneyComb geometry (HCPBG). The new HCPBG takes a uniplanar geometry (UCPBG—uniplanar compact PBG) as a reference and follows similar design methods for defining geometric parameters. The new structure’s advantages consist of reduced occupied printed circuit board area and flexible rejection band properties. In addition, rotation and slight geometry modification in the HCPBG cell allow changing the profile of the attenuation frequency range. This paper also presents a reconfigurable unit cell HCPBG filter strategy, for which the resonance center frequency is shifted by changing the gap capacitance with the assistance of varactor diodes. The HCPBG filter and reconfiguration behavior is demonstrated through electromagnetic (EM) simulations over the FR1 band of the 5G communication network. Intelligent communication systems can use the reconfiguration feature to select the optimal operating frequency for maximum attenuation of unwanted or interfering signals, such as harmonics or intermodulation products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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16 pages, 8477 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coordinate Transformations-Based Antenna Elements Embedded in a Metamaterial Shell with Scanning Capabilities

by Dipankar Mitra, Sukrith Dev, Monica S. Allen, Jeffery W. Allen and Benjamin D. Braaten

Electronics 2021, 10(9), 1081; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10091081 - 03 May 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2028

Abstract

In this work transformation electromagnetics/optics (TE/TO) were employed to realize a non-homogeneous, anisotropic material-embedded beam-steerer using both a single antenna element and an antenna array without phase control circuitry. Initially, through theory and validation with numerical simulations it is shown that beam-steering can be achieved in an arbitrary direction by enclosing a single antenna element within the transformation media. Then, this was followed by an array with fixed voltages and equal phases enclosed by transformation media. This enclosed array was scanned, and the proposed theory was validated through numerical simulations. Furthermore, through full-wave simulations it was shown that a horizontal dipole antenna embedded in a metamaterial can be designed such that the horizontal dipole performs identically to a vertical dipole in free-space. Similarly, it was also shown that a material-embedded horizontal dipole array can perform as a vertical dipole array in free-space, all without the need of a phase shifter network. These methods have applications in scanning for wireless communications, radar, beam-forming, and steering. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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Review

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20 pages, 4698 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Critical Examination of the Beam-Squinting Effect in Broadband Mobile Communication: Review Paper

by Mariam Q. Abdalrazak, Asmaa H. Majeed and Raed A. Abd-Alhameed

Electronics 2023, 12(2), 400; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12020400 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2539

Abstract

Due to the fact that the quality of the received signal is adversely affected by the beam squint phenomenon, which is especially pertinent to the millimeter wave (mmwave) bands, many studies have been utilised by other researchers to provide light on some of the challenges that come with analysing this type of occurrence. Squint causes several issues, the most important of which are its detrimental effects on gain, line of sight, angle of arrival, progressive phase, usable bandwidth, and fading effect. As a result of these obstacles, the advantages of adopting a high-frequency band such as mmwave in modern wireless communication systems are severely limited. Squint-phenomena-related difficulties, such as decreased channel capacity, increased bit error rate (BER), and lowered quality of services, may have a substantial detrimental impact on channel performance. The squint phenomenon and associated issues become more pressing with the expansion of the frequency spectrum and the deviation of the arrival angle from boresight. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the relevant literature and to compare and contrast various methods in order to identify the most fruitful lines of inquiry for future research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metamaterials and Metasurfaces)

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