Digital programmable metasurfaces (DPMs) are artificial electromagnetic surfaces that consist of massive subwavelength-scale digital reconfigurable elements. By configuring the elements, a DPM can perform space, time and frequency modulations of electromagnetic waves digitally and directly on the aperture, therefore, it connects the metasurface physics to the digital information world. This linkage innovates the ways of producing, acquiring and processing electromagnetic signals, and brings revolutionary applications in many areas such as reconfigurable antennas, smart electromagnetic sensing, electronic countermeasure, radar detection and wireless communication.
DPMs include various presentation forms such as reflection types, transmission types or traveling-wave types depending on their feeding methods. Also, different devices or materials have been used to design programmable elements, including positive-intrinsic-negative diodes, varactor diodes, liquid crystal and other controllable materials. With the continuous developments, more kinds of DPMs are expected in the future. Besides the researches of DPMs themselves, the applications of DPMs in practical scenarios will be a major focus in future researches.
Recently, the DPMs have been a promising area in both physics and information communities. This Research Topic aims to cover the latest researches of DPMs including theoretical analyses, engineering methods, and practical applications. Topics addressed in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Characterization of DPMs
• Design, fabrication and tests of DPMs
• Reconfigurable antennas based on DPMs
• Electromagnetic sensing based on DPMs
• Applications of DPMs in radar and communication systems
• Applications of DPMs in practical scenarios
Digital programmable metasurfaces (DPMs) are artificial electromagnetic surfaces that consist of massive subwavelength-scale digital reconfigurable elements. By configuring the elements, a DPM can perform space, time and frequency modulations of electromagnetic waves digitally and directly on the aperture, therefore, it connects the metasurface physics to the digital information world. This linkage innovates the ways of producing, acquiring and processing electromagnetic signals, and brings revolutionary applications in many areas such as reconfigurable antennas, smart electromagnetic sensing, electronic countermeasure, radar detection and wireless communication.
DPMs include various presentation forms such as reflection types, transmission types or traveling-wave types depending on their feeding methods. Also, different devices or materials have been used to design programmable elements, including positive-intrinsic-negative diodes, varactor diodes, liquid crystal and other controllable materials. With the continuous developments, more kinds of DPMs are expected in the future. Besides the researches of DPMs themselves, the applications of DPMs in practical scenarios will be a major focus in future researches.
Recently, the DPMs have been a promising area in both physics and information communities. This Research Topic aims to cover the latest researches of DPMs including theoretical analyses, engineering methods, and practical applications. Topics addressed in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Characterization of DPMs
• Design, fabrication and tests of DPMs
• Reconfigurable antennas based on DPMs
• Electromagnetic sensing based on DPMs
• Applications of DPMs in radar and communication systems
• Applications of DPMs in practical scenarios
