Electronically steered dynamic metasurface antenna: unlocking fixed-frequency beamsteering in leaky-wave antenna system

Leaky wave antennas (LWAs) are a class of reconfigurable antennas known for their high directivity and frequency-scanning abilities. However, their practical deployment in next-generation wireless communication is hindered by two critical challenges: beam squint and frequencydependent operation. Furthermore, achieving fixed-frequency beam steering is highly challenging in traditional LWAs. This paper presents the design of a revolutionary class of metasurface antennas, known as Dynamic Metasurface Antennas (DMA), that addresses the beam squint and frequency-dependence issues inherent in traditional LWAs. Unlike the slots used in LWAs, the DMA utilizes complementary electric inductive capacitive (CELC) resonant metamaterial elements, enabling precise control of the radiation pattern and electronic beam steering with seamless integration and a readily available tunable aperture. The proposed metasurface antenna consists of 16 CELC resonators etched onto the top layer of a planar substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) aperture. By employing various tuning schemes for the diodes, the phase differences between the radiating elements can be dynamically adjusted, enabling real-time antenna pattern generation and reconfiguration. The proposed DMA can produce a range of beam patterns, from narrow-to-wide steerable directive beams to complex multibeam configurations, achieved through programmable digital codes. Here, we demonstrate five such fixed-frequency steerable beams at 62 GHz. The proposed mmWave DMA design advances agile antenna technology, establishing DMAs as an efficient solution for next-generation 6G holographic communication, computational imaging, metasensing, and satellite applications.