Decoupling Strategy of Metasurface to Realize Independent Sensing and Wave Manipulations at the Same Time

Area of Science:

• Electromagnetic (EM) wave manipulation and sensing.
• Metasurface technology for advanced wireless systems.

Background:

• Integrating EM sensing and wave manipulation is vital for future wireless technologies.
• Metasurfaces offer control but face challenges in simultaneous sensing and manipulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a decoupling strategy for simultaneous sensing and wave manipulation using a space-time-coding digital metasurface (STCDM).
• To validate the STCDM strategy in adaptive wireless communication systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed a space-time-coding matrix to control meta-atom reflectivity across space-time dimensions.
• Implemented an adaptive STCDM system for real-world validation.
• Utilized metasurface properties for independent EM wave control and sensing.

Main Results:

• Achieved arbitrary manipulation of EM waves and simultaneous sensing at the incident frequency.
• Demonstrated high accuracy in direction-of-arrival estimation and wave manipulation.
• Validated independent sensing and wireless communication for targets at different locations.

Conclusions:

• The proposed decoupling strategy effectively enables simultaneous sensing and wave manipulation using STCDM.
• The adaptive STCDM system shows practical viability for future wireless communication, radar, and IoT systems.
• This approach eliminates the need for integrated sensors, simplifying system design.