Collaborative Research: Reconfigurable Intelligent Electromagnetic Surface Using Magnetic Shape Memory Polymers

合作研究：使用磁性形状记忆聚合物的可重构智能电磁表面

• 批准号: 2300157
• 负责人: Ruike Renee Zhao
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2300157&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Reconfigurable; Intelligent; Electromagnetic

The ability to dynamically manipulate electromagnetic waves by a flat aperture will lead to the realization of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). This vision includes implementing such reconfigurable surfaces at cell tower base stations to increase capacity and serve more users for 5G and beyond wireless systems in both outdoor and indoor settings. Moreover, dynamic and arbitrary manipulation of electromagnetic wavefronts is an exciting and versatile tool for next-generation wireless communication, imaging, holography, surveillance, and sensing applications. Reconfigurability or programmability is a vital feature of such future agile radio frequency systems. Reconfigurable devices or circuits (e.g., diodes and variable capacitors) have been used in such smart systems to control radiation pattern, polarization, or operating frequency. This project investigates a new approach of using programmable soft materials, for the first time, on RIS. The new approach offers unique advantages over the state-of-art technologies. This project is an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort between the mmWave Antennas and Arrays Laboratory (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology) and the Soft Intelligent Materials Laboratory (Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University).The research of this project is transformative as it challenges the conventional methods that have been applied to control RIS and reconfigure those wireless systems using them. The new approach is based on a viable mechanical reconfiguration method using shape memory polymers and magnetic actuation. Thus, unlike other state-of-the-art technologies, semiconductor switching devices such as diodes are no longer needed inside each unit cell. The advantage of this global reconfiguration method becomes even more important for large intelligent surfaces. In contrast to traditional reconfiguration schemes that use semiconductor devices such as diodes, the new architecture utilizes a unique and purely mechanical deformation that does not suffer from loss and nonlinearity associated with traditional semiconductor devices. In this project, researchers will use magnetically responsive soft materials to drive the multimodal mechanical shape reconfigurations of the RIS under an external magnetic field with several tens of millitesla. The project is expected to demonstrate several advantages of the new approach over existing state-of-art technologies, including programmability enabled by magnetic excitation, linearity, scalability, low operating voltage, low loss, and multimodal reconfiguration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

通过平面孔径动态操纵电磁波的能力将导致可重构智能表面（RIS）的实现。这一愿景包括在蜂窝塔基站实施这种可重构表面，以增加容量，并在室外和室内环境中为5G及其他无线系统的更多用户提供服务。此外，动态和任意操纵电磁波前是下一代无线通信、成像、全息、监视和传感应用的一种令人兴奋和通用的工具。可重构性或可编程性是这种未来敏捷射频系统的重要特征。可重构器件或电路（例如，二极管和可变电容器）已在此类智能系统中用于控制辐射方向图、极化或工作频率。该项目首次在RIS上研究了一种使用可编程软材料的新方法。与最先进的技术相比，这种新方法具有独特的优势。该项目是毫米波天线和阵列实验室（佐治亚理工学院电气与计算机工程学院）和软智能材料实验室（斯坦福大学机械工程系）之间的跨学科合作成果。该项目的研究具有变革性，因为它挑战了用于控制RIS的传统方法，并重新配置了使用它们的无线系统。新方法基于一种可行的利用形状记忆聚合物和磁致动的机械重构方法。因此，与其他最先进的技术不同，半导体开关设备，如二极管，不再需要在每个单元电池内。对于大型智能曲面，这种全局重构方法的优势显得尤为重要。与使用半导体器件（如二极管）的传统重构方案相比，新架构利用独特的纯机械变形，不会受到传统半导体器件相关的损耗和非线性的影响。在这个项目中，研究人员将使用磁响应软材料在几十毫特斯拉的外磁场下驱动RIS的多模态机械形状重构。该项目预计将展示新方法与现有最先进技术相比的几个优势，包括通过磁激励实现的可编程性、线性度、可扩展性、低工作电压、低损耗和多模态重构。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Mechanics of hard-magnetic soft materials: A review

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mechmat.2023.104874
• 发表时间: 2023-11
• 期刊: Mechanics of Materials
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Lu Lu-Lu;Jay Sim;Ruike Renee Zhao

Magneto-Mechanical Metamaterials: A Perspective

• DOI: 10.1115/1.4063816
• 发表时间: 2024-03-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF APPLIED MECHANICS-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Sim，Jay;Zhao，Ruike Renee
• 通讯作者: Zhao，Ruike Renee