4D-printed intelligent reflecting surface with improved beam resolution via both phase modulation and space modulation

Abstract Recently, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) have emerged as potential candidates for overcoming the line-of-sight issue in 5 G/6 G wireless communication. These IRSs can manipulate the direction of reflected beams, enabling efficient beam steering to enhance the performance of wireless communication. Each unit cell (or unit structure) of an IRS commonly consists of electrical elements for phase modulation. However, by employing phase modulation alone, an IRS can steer the reflected electromagnetic waves toward only discrete and specific angles, leaving a wide range of out-of-beam areas. In this work, an IRS that uses both phase modulation and space modulation is presented to improve the beam resolution and continuously cover out-of-beam areas that phase modulation alone cannot address. A positive-intrinsic-negative diode is mounted on a unit cell for phase modulation, and a 4D-printed reconfigured structure is fabricated to demonstrate space modulation. The beam-steering function is achieved by alternating the states of the diodes in the same columns, while the beam resolution is improved by controlling the gaps between the columns. The functions are first theoretically and numerically analyzed and then experimentally verified, demonstrating that additional angles of −46°/+50°, −22°/+14°, and −16°/+12° are achieved with space modulation and −60°/+62°, −30°/+22°, and ±16° are achieved by phase modulation alone. The proposed IRS offers the possibility of functional integration in a variety of indoor applications within the wireless communication field.