Active mm-Wave and THz Metasurfaces and Reflectarrays for Resilient Networks and Computational Imaging

The initial deployment of 5G mm-wave networks have shown that they are highly susceptible to blockages, channel disruptions, and fading due to the nature of their directive beams. Reconfigurable reflect/transmit arrays show promise to address this by allowing smart reconfiguration of the radio propagation environment. Traditionally referred to as reflect/transmit arrays in the microwave community, these arrays, when combined with silicon ICs, can now allow frequency scaling into mm-wave/THz, rapid programmability, scalability, amplification on-demand (for active surfaces), and sensing. Here, we present the case for such surfaces, design challenges, recent state-of-the-art work, and their impact for future wireless networks.