Intelligent Reflecting Surface Design with Reflection Phase Control to Improve 5G Performance

Abstract

Intelligent reflecting surfaces, or reconfigurable reflecting surfaces, support many modern communications applications. Such as the Internet of things,

5G technologies, and indoor environment communications. These surfaces consist of a matrix of unit cells to which are added active elements responsible for adjusting their phase in order to achieve the angle of reflection in directions different from the direction of the specular reflection. The current research presents a unit cell design operating at 30 GHz, with dimensions not exceeding 7 * 7 mm². Located on a substrate with thickness of 1.4 mm, and a relative permittivity of 4.25. The designed cell offers the possibility of reconfiguration using two varactors or two PIN diodes that can achieve phase reflection on a range asymptotic to 360° and 180° respectively under different angles of incidence and polarization modes of the EM field TE and TM. The unit cell was simulated using the FEM method available in the commercially available CST Studio Suite software, the results indicated that the proposed surfaces could be used in 5G cellular applications.