Chalcogenides-based dual-band tuning for changing resistance states of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces of devices

A variable capacitor, comprising:

• a first conductor and a second conductor configured as a first capacitor with a first capacitance value;
• a third conductor and a fourth conductor configured as a second capacitor with a second capacitance value;
• a variable capacitive circuit coupled between the first conductor and the second conductor to controllably adjust a capacitance of the variable capacitor by adding a first variable amount of capacitance to the first capacitance value and a second variable amount of capacitance to the second capacitance value, the variable capacitive circuit comprising a group of respective subcircuits, and the respective subcircuits of the group comprising respective capacitors electrically coupled to respective chalcogenide material-based switching elements that, independent from one another, remain in respective higher resistance states or respective lower resistance states until selectively actuated;
• and
• respective actuators configured to selectively apply heat output to the respective chalcogenide material-based switching elements, the heat output of the respective actuators being selectively controlled with respective electrical pulses that set at least some of the respective chalcogenide material-based switching elements to a lower resistance state or reset at least some of the respective chalcogenide material-based switching elements to a higher resistance state,
• wherein the respective subcircuits add different amounts of capacitance to the variable capacitive circuit based on whether the respective switching elements of the respective subcircuits are independently set to the lower resistance state or independently reset to the higher resistance state.

A variable capacitor, comprising:

• a first split ring capacitor having a first capacitance value;
• a second split ring capacitor having a second capacitance value;
• and
• a non-volatile tunable element electrically coupled to contacts of the first split ring capacitor to selectively change the first capacitance value to a first different capacitance value, and selectively change the second capacitance value to a second different capacitance value, the non-volatile tunable element comprising a group of capacitive subcircuits electrically coupled in parallel to one another between the contacts, each capacitive subcircuit of the group of capacitive subcircuits comprising a phase change material-based switching element that remains in a high resistance state or a low resistance state as controlled by a set pulse or a reset pulse, respectively, and the phase change material-based switching element controllable to add a capacitance of a capacitor of the capacitive subcircuit when the phase change material-based switching element is in the low resistance state, or exclude the capacitance of the capacitor of the capacitive subcircuit when the phase change material-based switching element is in the high resistance state.