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Electronics
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Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications
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Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications

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 2023) | Viewed by 8383

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Paola Pirinoli

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Guest Editor
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: microwave; antennas; numerical methods; electromagnetic field; THz science
Dr. Angelo Freni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Information, University of Florence, 50121 Firenze, Italy
Interests: computational electromagnetics; antennas; reflectarrays; transmitarrays; optimization techniques; additive manufacturing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Smart electromagnetic skins (SESs) are low-cost planar or conformal surfaces, with a texture comprising many elements, in case sub-wavelength, arranged in such a way that they provide an anomalous reflection (or transmission), according to which the incident field is re-directed in a pre-defined direction, covers the desired area, or has a specified spatial distribution (e.g., with nulls in some directions).

Two possible solutions are considered for their realization: in the first case, they are completely passive (static) surfaces able to re-direct the incident field in a fixed direction or to provide a pre-defined coverage, while a second alternative consists of using reconfigurable (dynamic) configurations, generally named reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), in which it is possible to change the shape or the direction of the beam just adjusting the behavior of the surface itself, realized with the introduction of elements that could be reconfigured.

Electromagnetic field shaping or redirecting in complex environments is the core of many engineering applications ranging from Telecom to MRI, wireless power transfer, and many others. The idea has recently raised considerable interest in beyond-5G communication systems, with the potential of achieving the 6G goals with a significant reduction in costs and overall power consumption. However, it can be also adopted in other emerging applications such as IoT and Industry 4.0.

The aim of the Special Issue is to draw attention to the design and realization of smart electromagnetic surfaces and to their potential applications.

In this context, authors are invited to present their contributions on, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Static SES design techniques;
  • Static SES technological aspects;
  • RIS design techniques;
  • RIS technological issues;
  • Optimization techniques applied to the design of SESs and/or RISs;
  • Numerical techniques for the analysis of the SESs;
  • Static/dynamic SESs application in 6G communication systems;
  • Other SES applications;
  • Numerical techniques for the analysis of the SESs coverture and environment influence;
  • In-field SESs experimental characterization.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Paola Pirinoli
Dr. Angelo Freni
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.

Keywords

  • smart electromagnetic surfaces
  • reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
  • 6G
  • optimization
  • numerical techniques
  • periodic structures
  • wireless communications
  • meta-surfaces
  • reflectarrays
  • transmitarrays

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 24042 KiB  
Article
Low-Profile and Low-Visual Impact Smart Electromagnetic Curved Passive Skins for Enhancing Connectivity in Urban Scenarios
by Angelo Freni, Michele Beccaria, Agnese Mazzinghi, Andrea Massaccesi and Paola Pirinoli
Electronics 2023, 12(21), 4491; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12214491 - 1 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 977
Abstract
This paper explores the possibility of integrating a smart electromagnetic skin into a street light or traffic light pole to enhance the coverage of a 5G base station operating in the millimeter-waves frequency band with the consequent improvement of the wireless network performance. [...] Read more.
This paper explores the possibility of integrating a smart electromagnetic skin into a street light or traffic light pole to enhance the coverage of a 5G base station operating in the millimeter-waves frequency band with the consequent improvement of the wireless network performance. Specifically, the electromagnetic characteristics of a curved smart electromagnetic skin, which can be easily integrated into a cylindrical radome enclosing the pole, have been analyzed and compared with those of a planar solution. Additionally, the coverage provided by a curved smart electromagnetic skin in a real urban scenario has been considered. The obtained results confirm that using a curved smart electromagnetic skin is both feasible and convenient from several points of view: it guarantees better performance than a planar configuration occupying the same volume, it is simpler to mount and it has a lower visual impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications)
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12 pages, 11455 KiB  
Article
Reconfigurable Transmitarray Based on Frequency Selective Surface for 2D Wide-Angle Beam Steering
by Maolin Sun, Haowei Xi, Xiaokang Qi, Kuiwen Xu, Huan Li, Qinyi Lv, Shaoqing Hu, Shichang Chen, Wensheng Zhao, Xungen Li and Wenjun Li
Electronics 2023, 12(18), 3854; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12183854 - 12 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1207
Abstract
A novel reconfigurable transmitarray (RTA) with two-dimensional (2D) wide beam steering capability is presented herein. Different from the traditional RTA with the discrete phase compensation (one-bit or multi-bits phase shift), a second order parallel bandpass filter model is used to realize the RTA [...] Read more.
A novel reconfigurable transmitarray (RTA) with two-dimensional (2D) wide beam steering capability is presented herein. Different from the traditional RTA with the discrete phase compensation (one-bit or multi-bits phase shift), a second order parallel bandpass filter model is used to realize the RTA elements with a 180° continuous phase compensation. A sandwich structure composed of the two patches with rectangular slots and the middle ground sheet with the cruciform slot is constructed for the phase shift characteristics of the frequency selective surface (FSS), and two varactor diodes are loaded across the rectangular slots on the two top and bottom patches. The simulated results show that the proposed elements could achieve continuous transmission phase compensation from 0° to 180° with a 3 dB insert loss within the operating band of 11.8–12.6 GHz. The RTA prototype with 16×16 elements and an aperture size of 6λ0×6λ0 at 12.2 GHz is fabricated and measured for experimental verification. The measured results show that its beam scanning range can reach ±50° in both horizontal and vertical planes with a peak gain of 22.76 dBi and a aperture efficiency of 24.65%. Furthermore, the sidelobe levels (SLLs) are lower than −17.8 dB, which is much better than most RTAs. The proposed RTA has potential applications in radar, microwave imaging and wireless communication systems with low-cost fabrication and a stable performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications)
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16 pages, 8517 KiB  
Article
Active Metamaterial Antenna with Tunable Zeroth-Order Resonances for Narrowband Internet of Things
by Zhanheng Liu, Leimeng Yang, Hongtao Liu and Yong Luo
Electronics 2023, 12(18), 3827; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12183827 - 10 Sep 2023
Viewed by 984
Abstract
With unique electromagnetic properties, metamaterials (MTMs) provide more freedom for antenna design, particularly with the combination of active-device-enabling effective tuning. By integrating the active device and the periodical cells of MTMs, the electromagnetic characteristics of individual cells can be manipulated independently, thereby realizing [...] Read more.
With unique electromagnetic properties, metamaterials (MTMs) provide more freedom for antenna design, particularly with the combination of active-device-enabling effective tuning. By integrating the active device and the periodical cells of MTMs, the electromagnetic characteristics of individual cells can be manipulated independently, thereby realizing multiple tunable states for MTM antennas consisting of several periodical cells. In this paper, we employ active devices such as PIN diodes to each periodical cell to tune each cell independently, thereby realizing 36 tunable zeroth-order resonances (ZORs) for the metamaterial antenna with three cells in a frequency range of 4.48–5.34 GHz. Moreover, each ZOR has a bandwidth as narrow as 0.09 GHz, indicating that the tunable ZOR antenna can be potentially applied to 5G Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications)
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14 pages, 4318 KiB  
Article
Use of a Realistic Ray-Based Model for the Evaluation of Indoor RF Coverage Solutions Using Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
by Enrico M. Vitucci, Mattia Fabiani and Vittorio Degli-Esposti
Electronics 2023, 12(5), 1173; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12051173 - 28 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1527
Abstract
A previously developed Huygens-based, “antenna-array-like” macroscopic model for scattering from metasurfaces is embedded into a ray-tracing tool and used to carry out realistic RF-coverage evaluations in indoor environment. Using the reciprocity of the link, we extend prediction to multiple-bounce paths that include metasurface [...] Read more.
A previously developed Huygens-based, “antenna-array-like” macroscopic model for scattering from metasurfaces is embedded into a ray-tracing tool and used to carry out realistic RF-coverage evaluations in indoor environment. Using the reciprocity of the link, we extend prediction to multiple-bounce paths that include metasurface scattering at the beginning or at the end of the interaction chain. The proposed model allows us to carry out coverage evaluations for any realistic RIS design by modifying a few simple parameters. In this work, reference environments such as T–shaped and L–shaped corridor cases are considered with different deployment solutions of anomalous and focusing reflectors. The results show that a gain of about 15–20 dB can be obtained in blind-spot locations with proper RIS placement and configuration, without the use of any additional active radio head, even when using simple designs such as pre-configured lossy phase-gradient metasurfaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications)
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19 pages, 2868 KiB  
Article
Hybrid Precoding Applied to Multi-Beam Transmitting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (T-RIS)
by David Demmer, Francesco Foglia Manzillo, Samara Gharbieh, Maciej Śmierzchalski, Raffaele D’Errico, Jean-Baptiste Doré and Antonio Clemente
Electronics 2023, 12(5), 1162; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12051162 - 27 Feb 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2358
Abstract
In this work, we study hybrid precoding techniques applied to multi-user Transmitting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (T-RIS) systems. The T-RIS considered here is a large array of electronically reconfigurable antenna elements illuminated by a small set of active sources. When it comes to digital [...] Read more.
In this work, we study hybrid precoding techniques applied to multi-user Transmitting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (T-RIS) systems. The T-RIS considered here is a large array of electronically reconfigurable antenna elements illuminated by a small set of active sources. When it comes to digital signal-processing techniques applied to T-RIS systems, it is necessary to consider realistic models to bridge the gap with theoretical results. For this reason, we propose a multi-beam T-RIS propagation model with strong phase quantization constraints and limited beam codebooks. First, the proposed model is validated by characterizing a Ka-band T-RIS. Then, we optimize the quad-beam T-RIS structure by tuning the focal distance between the lens and the focal sources according to two metrics: (i) the per-user antenna gain (analog-only approach), and (ii) the per-user average rate (hybrid digital/analog approach). For both indicators, the system performance is evaluated in a multi-user scenario by assuming imperfect channel state information. We show that considering only the analog precoder is sufficient to optimize the T-RIS. However, the fully hybrid precoding scheme is required to deal with inter-user interference. We propose a codebook-aware optimization that improves the aperture efficiency of the T-RIS system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Electromagnetic Skins and Their Applications)
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