Metasurface antennas could enable future 6G communications networks

A team led by researchers from the University of Glasgow has developed an innovative wireless communications antenna that combines the unique properties of metamaterials with advanced signal processing to achieve new and state-of-the-art performance.

In a paper published in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Open JournalIn the research paper, titled “60 GHz Programmable Dynamic Metasurface Antenna (DMA): From Concept to Prototype” the researchers present the development of a prototype digitally coded dynamic metasurface antenna (DMA) controlled by a high-speed field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The company’s DMA is the world’s first product designed and demonstrated at an operating frequency in the 60 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) band, a portion of the spectrum reserved by international law for use in industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications.

Because the antenna can operate in the higher mmWave bands, it could become a key piece of hardware in the still-developing field of advanced beamforming metasurface antennas.

This will enable future 6G networks to provide ultra-fast data transmission with high reliability, ensure high-quality services and seamless connectivity, and enable new applications in communications, sensing and imaging.

DMA’s high-frequency operation is made possible by specially designed metamaterials – structures carefully engineered to maximize their ability to interact with electromagnetic waves in ways that naturally occurring materials cannot.

DMA uses specially engineered, fully tunable metamaterial elements, carefully designed to manipulate electromagnetic waves through software control, to create advanced leaky-wave antennas capable of high-frequency reconfigurable manipulation.

The matchbox-sized prototype uses high-speed interconnects to simultaneously control individual metamaterial elements in parallel through FPGA programming. The DMA shapes the communications beams, creating multiple beams at once and switching between them in nanoseconds to ensure stable network coverage.

“This carefully designed prototype is an exciting development in the field of next-generation adaptive antennas, going far beyond previous state-of-the-art developments in reconfigurable programmable antennas,” said Professor Qammer H. Abbasi, co-director of the Communications, Sensing and Imaging Hub at the University of Glasgow and one of the paper’s lead authors.

“DMA has been demonstrated in microwave bands in recent years by researchers around the world, but our prototype pushes the technology further, reaching the higher mmWave bands of 60 GHz. This will be an invaluable stepping stone towards new use cases for 6G technology and could pave the way to even higher frequency operation in the terahertz range.”

The DMA design features can be utilized for patient monitoring and care, helping to directly monitor the patient’s vital signs and track the patient’s movements.