RFBridge: Ultra Wideband Reconfigurable Metamaterial Surface Enabling Frequency Conversion
Published in Proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile), 2025
Abstract
This paper proposes a new capability for RF metasurfaces: highly programmable frequency conversion. We design RFBridge, a low-power metasurface that can simply convert RF signals on one frequency to another, with both of these frequency bands being highly configurable over a wide range - from 2 GHz to 8 GHz. We design this system as a means to open up varied applications for both wireless communication and sensing. Consider, for example, an RFBridge surface that acts as a frequency-converting relay from a 5 GHz Wi-Fi radio to a legacy 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio. Or consider multiple RFBridge surfaces that can collaboratively convert RF signals from a base station to various frequency bands in different rooms to minimize interference. We present a detailed design of RFBridge’s frequency tunability and beamforming meta-cells, provide promising results through HFSS simulations, and discuss the exciting new applications opened up by frequency converting metamaterial surfaces.
Recommended citation: Yawen Liu, Shivang Aggarwal, Mohamed Ibrahim, Puneet Sharma, and Swarun Kumar. 2025. RFBridge: Ultra Wideband Reconfigurable Metamaterial Surface Enabling Frequency Conversion. In Proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile ‘25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1145/3708468.3711884