A Low-Profile Programmable Metasurface Antenna for Harmonic Modulation and Wireless Communication Applications

The dependency on feed horn of the metasurface leads to an increased physical profile and energy dissipation, posing challenges to system miniaturization and integration. To tackle this problem, a metasurface antenna with a low profile, fast programmability, and flexible wavefront reconfiguration capability is proposed. By integrating the transmissive metasurface with a planar array antenna, a 4.64 lambda(0) x 4.64 lambda(0) antenna operating over 5.77-5.83 GHz is realized with a thickness of 0.54 lambda(0). The planar feeding design reduces the total antenna height by approximately 99% compared to the conventional programmable metasurface. The experimental results have demonstrated that the presented antenna can achieve +/- 60 degrees beam steering. In addition, a simple antenna-based wireless communication platform is established, allowing for direct nonlinear harmonic modulation and information transmission without mixing devices. The proposed programmable metasurface antenna opens a new avenue to advance compact and efficient applications across diverse fields, including satellite communications, IoT devices, and smart city infrastructure.