近日，电子科技大学的张雅鑫与上海张江实验室的崔铁军等人合作并取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们提出用于集成波束导引与自开关键控调制功能的亚太赫兹透射型可重构智能表面。相关研究成果已于2025年1月1日在国际知名学术期刊《光：科学与应用》上发表。

本文提出一种基于潘查拉特南-贝里（PB）超表面的相位调节和肖特基二极管的自开关键控（OOK）调制的亚太赫兹透射型可重构智能表面（TRIS）。该电可重构单元由一个列向相位谐振器和一个矩形槽组成。通过在场-路联合仿真中实现了实验提取的等效集总元件电路模型，并通过实验进行了验证。所制作的原型展示了TRIS的优异性能，包括工作状态下的最小插入损耗为2.8分贝，1比特相位调节几乎覆盖整个W波段的大带宽，12分贝的深OOK幅度调制，以及±60°的宽扫描范围且镜面透射率低。

研究人员进一步实现了一个集高速波束转向和空间光调制于一体的平台，利用TRIS平台验证了不同方向上的点对点信号传输。所提出的TRIS具有高性能且制造成本效益高，是亚太赫兹简约通信系统、雷达和卫星通信系统的有前景的解决方案。

据悉，与传统相控阵相比，基于太赫兹超表面的相控阵在波束操控方面具有更高的灵活性，且结构框架更为简洁，在5G-A/6G通信网络中展现出巨大潜力。与反射型可重构智能表面（反射型RIS）相比，透射型RIS（TRIS）在收发多路复用系统中更具可行性，能够满足太赫兹通信和雷达系统对高性能波束追踪日益增长的需求。然而，太赫兹TRIS在相位调节、波束效率以及电路复杂性方面面临着更大的挑战。

附：英文原文

Title: Sub-terahertz transmissive reconfigurable intelligent surface for integrated beam steering and self-OOK-modulation

Author: Shen, Dongfang, Lan, Feng, Wang, Luyang, Song, Tianyang, Yang, Munan, Hu, Tianyu, Li, Yueting, Nie, Xiaolei, Yang, Jiayao, Liang, Shixiong, Zeng, Hongxin, Zhang, Hui-Fang, Mazumder, Pinaki, Yang, Ziqiang, Zhang, Yaxin, Cui, Tie Jun

Issue&Volume: 2025-01-01

Abstract: Boasting superior flexibility in beam manipulation and a simpler framework than traditional phased arrays, terahertz metasurface-based phased arrays show great promise for 5G-A/6G communication networks. Compared with the reflective reconfigurable intelligent surface (reflective RIS), the transmissive RIS (TRIS) offers more feasibility for transceiver multiplexing systems to meet the growing demand for high-performance beam tracking in terahertz communication and radar systems. However, the terahertz TRIS encounters greater challenges in phase shift, beam efficiency, and complex circuitry. Here, we propose a sub-terahertz TRIS based on the phase shift via Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) metasurface and self-on-off keying (OOK) modulation via Schottky diodes. The electrically reconfigurable unit cell consists of a column-wise phase resonator and a rectangular slot. An experimental retrieved equivalent lumped-element circuit model is implemented in joint field-circuit simulations and is validated by experiments. A fabricated prototype demonstrates excellent performance of TRIS with the minimum insertion loss of 2.8dB for operational states, large bandwidth nearly covering the entire W-band for 1-bit phase shift, deep OOK amplitude modulation of 12dB, and wide scanning range of ±60° with low specular transmission. We further implement an integrated platform combining high-speed beam steering and spatial-light modulation, verifying the point-to-point signal transmissions in different directions using the TRIS platform. The proposed TRIS with high-performance and cost-effective fabrication makes it a promising solution to terahertz minimalist communication systems, radar, and satellite communication systems.

DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01690-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-024-01690-0