Unit Cell Design for Intelligent Reflecting and Refracting Surface (IR²S) With Independent Electronic Control Capability

This letter presents a design of an electronically reconfigurable unit cell (UC), that can be used in the construction of intelligent reflecting and refracting surfaces (IR(2)Ss) for future 6G communication. It can independently perform beam forming or beam steering in both reflection and refraction modes. The (IRS)-S-2 UC responds separately to TE and TM incidences. The UC utilizes PIN diodes to obtain two phase states, 0 degrees and 180 degrees (with 1-bit phase resolution), simultaneously in the reflection and refraction modes. Prototypes of the (IRS)-S-2 UC have been fabricated and characterized in a waveguide measurement, showing excellent agreement between simulation and measurement at a center frequency of 5.9 GHz.