Passive metasurface for interacting with electromagnetic signals
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsHao Pan, Lili Qiu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method jointly optimizes a passive metasurface and a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna array to achieve dynamic adaptation and high RSS. The passive metasurface consists of one or more conductive layers and dielectric layers. The metasurface supports dual band communication. For the uplink, the outgoing signals is generated by jointly optimizing antenna array and metasurface design. For the downlink, the designed metasurface is used together with incident-angle-insensitive meta cells to effectively combine arriving signals at the receiving antennas from all incident angles.
Claims20
A method of designing a passive metasurface for interacting with an electromagnetic signal received at the passive metasurface from an electromagnetic signal transmitter, the method comprising:
- executing a search to tune physical dimensions and distribution of meta-atoms distributed in the passive metasurface with respect to a plurality of predefined input signal property sets of the electromagnetic signal to provide a tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate;
- and
- forming the meta-atoms with the physical dimensions and the distribution determined by the search in one or more conductive layers and one or more dielectric substrates of the passive metasurface, each meta-atom being configured to modulate incoming electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal received by the meta-atom to form corresponding outgoing electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal exiting the passive metasurface, wherein the tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate supports the plurality of predefined input signal property sets of the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts at a first side of the passive metasurface and, for each input signal property set, the physical dimensions and the distribution of the meta-atoms are tuned according to the tuned propagation profile to modulate the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts to generate a predefined beam pattern of the electromagnetic signal exiting an opposing side of the passive metasurface corresponding to the input signal property set.
A passive metasurface system for interacting with an electromagnetic signal received from an electromagnetic signal transmitter, the passive metasurface system comprising:
- a passive metasurface designed by executing a search to tune physical dimensions and distribution of meta-atoms distributed in the passive metasurface with respect to a plurality of predefined input signal property sets of the electromagnetic signal to provide a tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate, and manufactured by forming the meta-atoms with the physical dimensions and the distribution determined by the search in one or more conductive layers and one or more dielectric substrates of the passive metasurface, each meta-atom being configured to modulate incoming electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal received by the meta-atom to form corresponding outgoing electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal exiting the passive metasurface, wherein the tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate supports the plurality of predefined input signal property sets of the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts at a first side of the passive metasurface and, for each input signal property set, the physical dimensions and the distribution of the meta-atoms are tuned according to the tuned propagation profile to modulate the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts to generate a predefined beam pattern of the electromagnetic signal exiting an opposing side of the passive metasurface corresponding to the input signal property set.
A passive metasurface for interacting with an electromagnetic signal received at the passive metasurface from an electromagnetic signal transmitter, the passive metasurface comprising:
- one or more dielectric substrates;
- one or more conductive layers applied to each of the one or more dielectric substrates;
- and
- meta-atoms distributed in the passive metasurface to provide a tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate, each meta-atom including at least a portion of a propagation element formed in the one or more conductive layers and the one or more dielectric substrates, each propagation element interacting with the electromagnetic signal to modulate incoming electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal received by the propagation element to form corresponding outgoing electromagnetic wavefronts of the electromagnetic signal exiting the passive metasurface, wherein the tuned propagation profile of the meta-atoms in aggregate supports a plurality of predefined input signal property sets of the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts at a first side of the passive metasurface and, for each input signal property set, physical dimensions and distribution of the propagation elements in the passive metasurface are tuned according to the tuned propagation profile to modulate the incoming electromagnetic wavefronts to generate a predefined beam pattern of the electromagnetic signal exiting an opposing side of the passive metasurface corresponding to the input signal property set.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.