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This paper analyzes the working principle of four-switch cross-shaped reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in detail and reveals the different types of RIS that can be designed based on this structure. Combined with the design examples using this structure in the currently published articles, this paper summarizes and organizes them, and also points out several RIS solutions that have not been designed using this structure. Finally, based on this four-switch cross-shaped structure, this paper proposes a novel RIS design example that can realize the function switching of 1-bit ultra-wideband (UWB) and 2-bit narrowband, and conducts simulation verification. The simulation results show that by optimizing the element structure and controlling the states of the four switches, the 1-bit ultra-wideband function can achieve a frequency band coverage of 10.5GHz-19.8GHz and a 2-bit phase quantization function around 18.12GHz. At the same time, it can realize 60{\deg} two-dimensional beam scanning function. We call this novel design "bit reconfigurable metasurface".

In the new perspective of spatial quantization, this article systematically studies the advantages of reconfigurable reflectarray (RRA) designed with closely spaced elements in terms of sidelobe level (SLL), scanning accuracy, scan loss and beam granularity, including theoretical analysis and simulation verification. This article sequentially studies RRAs with element periods of {\lambda}/2, {\lambda}/4 and {\lambda}/8. Both theoretical and simulation results show that under the condition of the same aperture size, with the number of spatial quantization bits increasing, 1bit RRA using closely spaced structure SLL will have a improvement of about 5dB. The scanning accuracy at 60{\deg} is improved from 54.52{\deg} at {\lambda}/2 to 57.97{\deg} at {\lambda}/8, while the scan loss is improved from 5.02dB at {\lambda}/2 to 2.85dB at {\lambda}/8. In terms of beam granularity, the beam granularity is increased by about 4 times for every 1bit of spatial quantization encryption in the RRA element period. The beam granularity at 0{\deg} of 1bit RRA with unit period of {\lambda}/2 is 0.166{\deg}, {\lambda}/4 is 0.033{\deg}, and {\lambda}/8 is 0.009{\deg}. This study has an important reference value for reconfigurable reflectarray design, communication system and radar design.

In this work, we propose a deep learning-based imaging method for addressing the multi-frequency electromagnetic (EM) inverse scattering problem (ISP). By combining deep learning technology with EM physical laws, we have successfully developed a multi-frequency neural Born iterative method (NeuralBIM), guided by the principles of the single-frequency NeuralBIM. This method integrates multitask learning techniques with NeuralBIM's efficient iterative inversion process to construct a robust multi-frequency Born iterative inversion model. During training, the model employs a multitask learning approach guided by homoscedastic uncertainty to adaptively allocate the weights of each frequency's data. Additionally, an unsupervised learning method, constrained by the physical laws of ISP, is used to train the multi-frequency NeuralBIM model, eliminating the need for contrast and total field data. The effectiveness of the multi-frequency NeuralBIM is validated through synthetic and experimental data, demonstrating improvements in accuracy and computational efficiency for solving ISP. Moreover, this method exhibits strong generalization capabilities and noise resistance. The multi-frequency NeuralBIM method explores a novel inversion method for multi-frequency EM data and provides an effective solution for the electromagnetic ISP of multi-frequency data.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are promising candidate for the 6G communication. Recently, active RIS has been proposed to compensate the multiplicative fading effect inherent in passive RISs. However, conventional distributed active RISs, with at least one amplifier per element, are costly, complex, and power-intensive. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel architecture of active RIS: the centralized active RIS (CA-RIS), which amplifies the energy using a centralized amplifying reflector to reduce the number of amplifiers. Under this architecture, only as low as one amplifier is needed for power amplification of the entire array, which can eliminate the mutual-coupling effect among amplifiers, and significantly reduce the cost, noise level, and power consumption. We evaluate the performance of CA-RIS, specifically its path loss, and compare it with conventional passive RISs, revealing a moderate amplification gain. Furthermore, the proposed CA-RIS and the path loss model are experimentally verified, achieving a 9.6 dB net gain over passive RIS at 4 GHz. The CA-RIS offers a substantial simplification of active RIS architecture while preserving performance, striking an optimal balance between system complexity and the performance, which is competitive in various scenarios.

Reducing the in-band and co-polarization radar cross section (RCS) of antennas is a widely concerned problem, especially for bistatic RCS reduction of a single antenna. Therefore, this letter presents a design method to control the null of the in-band scattering field by controlling the load impedance of the antenna, so as to effectively reduce the bistatic RCS. First, the relationship between the null position and the load impedance is calculated by analyzing the in-band scattering field of the antenna. Then, the load impedance of the traditional patch antenna is controlled by cascading an open-circuit stub of different lengths on the feeding line, so as to realize the null tunning of the in-band scattering field. Simulated and measured results show that the designed patch antenna can tune the scattering pattern null from 0{\deg} to 60{\deg} thus effectively reduce the bistatic RCS under the premise that the radiation performance is basically unchanged.

Controlling the in-band co-polarization scattering of the antenna while maintaining its radiation performance is crucial for the low observable platform. Thus, this paper studies the in-band co-polarization scattering beam scanning of antenna arrays. Firstly, the regulation method of antenna scattering is analyzed theoretically, concluding that the amplitude and phase of the antenna's scattering field can be regulated by changing the load impedance. Subsequently, PIN diodes are implemented to control the load impedance of the antenna. Consequently, the scattering of the antenna, ensuring that the antenna's scattering meets the condition of equal amplitude and a phase difference of 180{\deg} when the PIN diode switches, thereby realizing scattering beam scanning. Moreover, by introducing an additional pre-phase, the inherent symmetric dual-beam issue observed in traditional 1-bit reconfigurable structures is overcome, achieving single-beam scanning of the scattering. Finally, a 1{\times}16 linear antenna array is designed and fabricated, which operates at 6 GHz with radiation gain of 16.3 dBi. The scattering beams of the designed array can point to arbitrary angles within 45{\deg}, significantly reducing the in-band co-polarization backward radar cross section. The measured results align well with the simulated ones.

The Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) is an widely utilized and rigorous classification test for lung function evaluation, serving as a comprehensive tool for lung diagnosis. Meanwhile, Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is a rapidly advancing clinical technique that visualizes conductivity distribution induced by ventilation. EIT provides additional spatial and temporal information on lung ventilation beyond traditional PFT. However, relying solely on conventional isolated interpretations of PFT results and EIT images overlooks the continuous dynamic aspects of lung ventilation. This study aims to classify lung ventilation patterns by extracting spatial and temporal features from the 3D EIT image series. The study uses a Variational Autoencoder network with a MultiRes block to compress the spatial distribution in a 3D image into a one-dimensional vector. These vectors are then concatenated to create a feature map for the exhibition of temporal features. A simple convolutional neural network is used for classification. Data collected from 137 subjects were finally used for training. The model is validated by ten-fold and leave-one-out cross-validation first. The accuracy and sensitivity of normal ventilation mode are 0.95 and 1.00, and the f1-score is 0.94. Furthermore, we check the reliability and feasibility of the proposed pipeline by testing it on newly recruited nine subjects. Our results show that the pipeline correctly predicts the ventilation mode of 8 out of 9 subjects. The study demonstrates the potential of using image series for lung ventilation mode classification, providing a feasible method for patient prescreening and presenting an alternative form of PFT.

Stealthy electronically reconfigurable transmitarray antennas are essential components in wireless communication and radar detection systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a 1 bit electronically reconfigurable transmitarray antenna with out-of-band scatter suppression. The transmitarray consists of two layers, the absorptive frequency selective transmission (AFST) layer and reconfigurable transmitarray (RTA) layer, separated by air. Specifically, the AFST layer achieves out-of-band scattering suppression and in-band transmission performance by utilizing the first three resonant modes of a bent metallic strip with a centrally loaded resistor. Additionally, the RTA layer adopts a receiver-transmitter structure with an active receiving dipole and a passive orthogonal transmitting dipole. The 1 bit phase shift is achieved by alternating two pin diodes integrated on the active dipole to reverse its current direction. To evaluate the proposed design, a 256-element transmitarray prototype is designed, fabricated and measured. For scattering, the 10-dB radar cross section reduction is realized within 4~5.2 GHz and 10.9~11.4 GHz, respectively. For radiation, the measured gain is 19.9 dBi at 7.5 GHz, corresponding to an aperture efficiency of 12.1%. and the beam scanning covers 60{\deg} with gain loss of 5 dB in both two principal planes., Comment: This paper will be submitted to IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

This work presents a beam-steering reflectarray antenna capable of achieving arbitrary linear polarization (LP) reconfiguration. It utilizes a dual-circular polarization (CP) reconfigurable reflectarray, along with an LP feed horn, to synthesize a LP beam by combining two reflected CP beams in the same direction. The LP states can be dynamically adjusted by tuning the phase constants of the array, which correspondingly modify the wave phases. Experimental validation of the proposed polarization synthesis concept is conducted using a 16$\times$16 dual-CP 1-bit reconfigurable reflectarray operating at 16.8 GHz. This reflectarray generates reconfigurable LP waves with polarization states of LP(0$^\circ$), LP(45$^\circ$), LP(90$^\circ$) and LP(135$^\circ$). Furthermore, it demonstrates the capability to perform beam scanning, allowing for versatile beam manipulation. The application of this polarization-reconfigurable beam-steering reflectarray is pertinent to beam alignment and polarization synchronization in various wireless communication scenarios, including satellite communication and mobile communication.

Reconfigurable transmitarray antennas (RTAs) are rapidly gaining popularity, but optimizing their performance requires systematic design theories. In particular, establishing a performance limit theory for RTA elements is valuable. This paper presents a transmission efficiency limit theory for single-switch RTA elements and their cascaded extensions. Employing microwave network analysis, we analytically investigate single-switch RTA elements, demonstrating that their transmission coefficients under two states must lie on or within a specific unit circle on the Smith chart. Therefore, the transmission phase difference is tightly constrained by the transmission amplitudes, indicating that the phase-shifting ability of a single-switch RTA element is limited. Subsequently, this analysis is extended to cascaded RTA elements. By cascading several single-switch layers, the phase variation range is extended, enabling the realization of 1-bit phase shifts with high transmission amplitudes. These findings have significant impact on the design and optimization of RTA elements.

Considering the rapid progress of theory, design, fabrication and applications, metasurface (MTS) has become a new research frontier in microwave, terahertz and optical bands. Reconfigurable metasurface (R-MTS) can dynamically modulate electromagnetic (EM) wave with unparalleled flexibility, which leads to great research tide in recent years. Numerous R-MTSs with powerful capabilities and various functions are presented explosively. In light of the five dimensions of EM wave, this review proposes a unified model to describe the interactions among R-MTS, EM wave and EM information, and suggests information bit allocation strategy to categorize different types of R-MTSs systematically. As recent advances of R-MTS, 1-bit and 2-bit elements manipulating different wave dimensions are reviewed respectively in detail. Finally, this review discusses the future research trends of R-MTS. Hopefully, R-MTSs with diverse dimensions and functions can propel the next generation of communication, detection, sensing, imaging and computing applications.

In the study of nonlinear inverse scattering problems (ISPs), the traditional method for estimating the number of degrees of freedom (NDoF) of the scattered field does not consider the effect of the scatterer contrast. In this work, we study the relationship between NDoF and scatterer contrast by modifying the radiation matrix. Specifically, three numerical methods for calculating the NDoF are presented. The first NDoF is defined as the number of principle singular values of the external radiation matrix, which is used as a benchmark. The second NDoF is defined based on the modified radiation matrix that incorporates the contrast of domain of investigation (DoI) with the external radiation matrix. By exploring the relationship between the second NDoF and contrast, an approximate upper bound of the second NDoF is obtained, that is, the third NDoF. The accuracy of the proposed NDoF is verified by interpolation experiments on both synthetic and experimental data using frequency-domain zero-padding method. Results show that the second NDoF is more accurate than traditional NDoF for high-contrast scatterers, and the third NDoF can be easily estimated by the traditional NDoF plus a positive constant, which provides a simple way to estimate the upper bound of NDoF.

Reconfigurable reflectarray antennas (RRAs) have rapidly developed with various prototypes proposed in recent literatures. However, designing wideband, multiband, or high-frequency RRAs faces great challenges, especially the lengthy simulation time due to the lack of systematic design guidance. The current scattering viewpoint of the RRA element, which couples antenna structures and switches during the design process, fails to address these issues. Here, we propose a novel radiation viewpoint to model, evaluate, and design RRA elements. Using this viewpoint, the design goal is to match the element impedance to a characteristic impedance pre-calculated by switch parameters, allowing various impedance matching techniques developed in classical antennas to be applied in RRA element design. Furthermore, the theoretical performance limit can be pre-determined at given switch parameters before designing specific structures, and the constant loss curve is suggested as an intuitive tool to evaluate element performance in the Smith chart. The proposed method is validated by a practical 1-bit RRA element with degraded switch parameters. Then, a 1-bit RRA element with wideband performance is successfully designed using the proposed design process. The proposed method provides a novel perspective of RRA elements, and offers a systematic and effective guidance for designing wideband, multiband, and high-frequency RRAs., Comment: Accepted by IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

The past decade has witnessed the advances of artificial intelligence with various applications in engineering. Recently, artificial neural network empowered inverse design for metasurfaces has been developed that can design on-demand meta-atoms with diverse shapes and high performance, where the design process based on artificial intelligence is fast and automatic. However, once the inverse-designed static meta-atom is fabricated, the function of the metasurface is fixed. Reconfigurable metasurfaces can realize dynamic functions, while applying artificial intelligence to design practical reconfigurable meta-atoms inversely has not been reported yet. Here, we present a deep-learning-empowered inverse design method for freeform reconfigurable metasurfaces, which can generate on-demand reconfigurable coding meta-atoms at self-defined frequency bands. To reduce the scale of dataset, a decoupling method of the reconfigurable meta-atom based on microwave network theory is proposed at first, which can convert the inverse design process for reconfigurable coding meta-atoms to the inverse design for static structures. A convolutional neural network model is trained to predict the responses of free-shaped meta-atoms, and the genetic algorithm is applied to generate the optimal structure patterns rapidly. As a demonstration of concept, several inverse-designed examples are generated with different self-defined spectrum responses in microwave band, and an inverse-designed wideband reconfigurable metasurface prototype is fabricated and measured for beam scanning applications with broad bandwidth. Our work paves the way for the fast and automatic design process of high-performance reconfigurable metasurfaces.

Electromagnetic (EM) imaging is widely applied in sensing for security, biomedicine, geophysics, and various industries. It is an ill-posed inverse problem whose solution is usually computationally expensive. Machine learning (ML) techniques and especially deep learning (DL) show potential in fast and accurate imaging. However, the high performance of purely data-driven approaches relies on constructing a training set that is statistically consistent with practical scenarios, which is often not possible in EM imaging tasks. Consequently, generalizability becomes a major concern. On the other hand, physical principles underlie EM phenomena and provide baselines for current imaging techniques. To benefit from prior knowledge in big data and the theoretical constraint of physical laws, physics embedded ML methods for EM imaging have become the focus of a large body of recent work. This article surveys various schemes to incorporate physics in learning-based EM imaging. We first introduce background on EM imaging and basic formulations of the inverse problem. We then focus on three types of strategies combining physics and ML for linear and nonlinear imaging and discuss their advantages and limitations. Finally, we conclude with open challenges and possible ways forward in this fast-developing field. Our aim is to facilitate the study of intelligent EM imaging methods that will be efficient, interpretable and controllable.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been widely considered as a key technique to improve spectral efficiency for 6G communications. Compared with most existing research that only focuses on the reflective RIS, the design and prototyping of a novel transmissive RIS are presented in this paper, and its enhancement to the RIS-aided communication system is experimentally demonstrated. The 2-bit transmissive RIS element utilizes the penetration structure, which combines a 1-bit current reversible dipole and a 90{\deg} digital phase shifter based on a quadrature hybrid coupler. A transmissive RIS prototype with 16$\times$16 elements is designed, fabricated, and measured to verify the proposed design. The measured phase shift and insertion loss of the RIS element validate the 2-bit phase modulation capability. Being illuminated by a horn feed, the prototype achieves a maximum broadside gain of 22.0 dBi at 27 GHz, and the two-dimensional beamforming capability with scan angles up to $\pm$60{\deg} is validated. The experimental results of the RIS-aided communication system verify that by introducing the extra gain and beam steering capability, the transmissive RIS is able to achieve a higher data rate, reduce the transmit power, improve the transmission capability through obstacles, and dynamically adapt to the signal propagation direction., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. This paper fabricates a 16$\times$16 transmissive RIS and develops a transmissive RIS-aided mmWave communication prototype to demonstrate its performance

In this paper, we propose the neural Born iterative method (NeuralBIM) for solving 2D inverse scattering problems (ISPs) by drawing on the scheme of physics-informed supervised residual learning (PhiSRL) to emulate the computing process of the traditional Born iterative method (TBIM). NeuralBIM employs independent convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to learn the alternate update rules of two different candidate solutions regarding the residuals. Two different schemes are presented in this paper, including the supervised and unsupervised learning schemes. With the data set generated by the method of moments (MoM), supervised NeuralBIM are trained with the knowledge of total fields and contrasts. Unsupervised NeuralBIM is guided by the physics-embedded objective function founding on the governing equations of ISPs, which results in no requirement of total fields and contrasts for training. Numerical and experimental results further validate the efficacy of NeuralBIM., Comment: This preprint has been published in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation on 01 November 2022. Please cite the final published version as [T. Shan et al., "Neural Born Iterative Method for Solving Inverse Scattering Problems: 2D Cases," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 818-829, Jan. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TAP.2022.3217333.]

In this study, physics-informed supervised residual learning (PhiSRL) is proposed to enable an effective, robust, and general deep learning framework for 2D electromagnetic (EM) modeling. Based on the mathematical connection between the fixed-point iteration method and the residual neural network (ResNet), PhiSRL aims to solve a system of linear matrix equations. It applies convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to learn updates of the solution with respect to the residuals. Inspired by the stationary and non-stationary iterative scheme of the fixed-point iteration method, stationary and non-stationary iterative physics-informed ResNets (SiPhiResNet and NiPhiResNet) are designed to solve the volume integral equation (VIE) of EM scattering. The effectiveness and universality of PhiSRL are validated by solving VIE of lossless and lossy scatterers with the mean squared errors (MSEs) converging to $\sim 10^{-4}$ (SiPhiResNet) and $\sim 10^{-7}$ (NiPhiResNet). Numerical results further verify the generalization ability of PhiSRL., Comment: This preprint has been published in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation on 01 March 2023. Please cite the final published version as [T. Shan et al., "Physics-Informed Supervised Residual Learning for Electromagnetic Modeling," in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 3393-3407, April 2023, doi: 10.1109/TAP.2023.3245281]

In this work, we investigated the feasibility of applying deep learning techniques to solve Poisson's equation. A deep convolutional neural network is set up to predict the distribution of electric potential in 2D or 3D cases. With proper training data generated from a finite difference solver, the strong approximation capability of the deep convolutional neural network allows it to make correct prediction given information of the source and distribution of permittivity. With applications of L2 regularization, numerical experiments show that the predication error of 2D cases can reach below 1.5\% and the predication of 3D cases can reach below 3\%, with a significant reduction in CPU time compared with the traditional solver based on finite difference methods., Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures

An accelerated analysis method for non-uniform metasurfaces in FDTD is presented for the first time. The non-uniform metasurfaces are modeled by a distribution of susceptibilities, homogenized parameters. Those susceptibilities are calculated from scattering coefficients of each elements based on Generalized Sheet Transition Conditions (GSTCs). Next, susceptibility modeled metasurface is simulated in 3D FDTD in a form of surface polarization currents. For simplicity, this paper only consider frequencies well below resonance, where the susceptibility is an approximate constant., Comment: information of author is wrong