Reconfigurable transmission lines embedded in chessboard metasurfaces

The advent of modern communications systems has fostered the need of circuits with increased functionalities in a confined volume. Multiple functionality may consist in the ability of supporting several wireless standards or dynamically changing the role of a radio-frequency (RF) front-end as the mission changes. Reconfigurability is normally achieved using some kind of switching mechanism, that redistributes the currents and, hence, alters the electromagnetic fields. For electronic switches, one has to face the issue of where to attach the bias lines for the switches. Thus, the use of photo-conductive switches (Tripon-Canseliet et al., J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 30, no. 23, pp. 3576{3579, Dec. 2012), which do not require bias lines, may represent an advantage.