Digitally Coded, Screen-Printed Flexible Metasurfaces for Tunable Electromagnetic Responses

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electromagnetics
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Metasurfaces offer advanced control over electromagnetic waves.
• Existing fabrication methods can be complex and costly.
• Need for flexible, programmable metasurfaces for emerging applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a low-cost, scalable fabrication strategy for programmable metasurfaces.
• To demonstrate binary spatial material coding on flexible substrates.
• To validate the electromagnetic performance and suitability for wireless communications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized screen printing with metal ink on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates.
• Employed CO2 laser cutter and photo paper for custom stencil mask fabrication.
• Characterized metasurface performance using experimental and numerical methods, including 64-QAM signal modulation.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated programmable metasurfaces with distinct electromagnetic functionalities (polarization-sensitive, frequency-selective).
• Demonstrated excellent agreement between experimental and numerical results for both TE and TM polarizations.
• Confirmed polarization selectivity with significant EVM differences for TE vs. TM polarization at 8.5 GHz.
• Showcased robustness of electromagnetic response under mechanical bending.

Conclusions:

• The developed screen-printing method is a low-cost, scalable approach for fabricating digitally programmable metasurfaces.
• The flexible, robust metasurfaces are suitable for nonplanar applications and wireless communication systems.
• This methodology provides a versatile platform for real-world electromagnetic wave manipulation.