Backplane for metasurface antenna with an amplifier driven by drive circuitry

A metasurface antenna comprising:

• a plurality of radio-frequency radiating antenna elements, each of the plurality of RF radiating antenna elements including a radiating element and a coupling iris;
• a plurality of tuning elements coupled to the plurality of radio-frequency radiating antenna elements, wherein each tuning element of the plurality of tuning elements is associated with an antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements;
• a plurality of amplifiers coupled to the plurality of radio-frequency radiating antenna elements, wherein each amplifier of the plurality of amplifiers is associated with an antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements;
• and
• a plurality of driver circuits, each driver circuit of the plurality of driver circuits to output a pair of signals to one antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements and its associated amplifier, the pair of signals including a tuning signal to tune the one antenna element and an amplifier signal to tune the associated amplifier,
• wherein the tuning element, amplifier, and said each driver circuit for each antenna element of the plurality of antenna elements are integrated in a single chip that is coupled to the radiating element of said each antenna element and to a transmission line that extends over the coupling iris.