Qian Ting
Shanghai Technical Institute of Electronics and Information, Shanghai 200240, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Feb 28;12(3):243. doi: 10.3390/mi12030243.
In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable metasurface antenna for flexible scattering field manipulation using liquid metal. Since the Eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) liquid metal has a melting temperature around the general room temperature (about 30 °C), the structure based on the liquid metal can be easily reconstructed under the temperature control. We have designed an element cavity structure to contain liquid metal for its flexible shape-reconstruction. By melting and rotating the element structure, the shape of liquid metal can be altered, resulting in the distinct reflective phase responses. By arranging different metal structure distribution, we show that the scattering fields generated by the surface have diverse versions including single-beam, dual-beam, and so on. The experimental results have good consistency with the simulation design, which demonstrated our works. The presented reconfigurable scheme may promote more interest in various antenna designs on 5G and intelligent applications.
在本文中，我们提出了一种用于利用液态金属灵活操纵散射场的可重构超表面天线。由于共晶镓铟（EGaIn）液态金属的熔化温度接近一般室温（约30°C），基于液态金属的结构在温度控制下可轻松重构。我们设计了一种元件腔结构来容纳液态金属以实现其灵活的形状重构。通过熔化和旋转元件结构，可以改变液态金属的形状，从而产生不同的反射相位响应。通过安排不同的金属结构分布，我们表明表面产生的散射场有多种形式，包括单波束、双波束等。实验结果与模拟设计具有良好的一致性，这证明了我们的工作。所提出的可重构方案可能会激发人们对5G及智能应用中各种天线设计的更多兴趣。
