Liquid-based Reconfigurable Antenna and Reflector Technologies for Sub-TeraHertz 6G Communication

This LiBERATE project aims to study liquid-based techniques for reconfigurable antennas and reflectors (RARs) in the sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) band. This is to overcome the severe path-loss and limited coverage intrinsic to sub-THz signals to enable extremely high-speed communications via the vastly available bandwidth. The dynamic reconfiguration of narrow beams towards the intended direction(s) by RARs is expected to extend the signal coverage significantly while reducing costs/energy in place of base stations. Traditional approaches, for reconfiguring antennas and reflectors, suffer from limitations such as the complexity of biasing and control circuits needed, significant overall power consumption, poor harmonic performance, and limited tuning range. The liquid-based reconfiguration technique offers an extensive structural reshaping capability, and such feature is not available in any other current feasible reconfiguration methods for sub-THz RARs. This solution is expected to be resource-efficient to catalyse the use of the sub-THz band for 6G communications, accelerating the digitalization of economy, society, and sustainability.