Liquid Crystal RIS for Upper Mid-band 6G Communication Networks

Yi-Chan Hung^1*, Yuh-Chyi Chang¹, Tien-Lun Ting¹, Tsung-Hsien Lin¹

¹Department of photonics, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

* Presenter:Yi-Chan Hung, email:disneyland54@gmail.com

We introduce a liquid crystal reconfigurable intelligent surface (LC RIS) designed for the 6G wireless communication frequency band, which integrates a dipole antenna with an electrically controlled liquid crystal phase shifter. Unlike traditional RIS that rely on semiconductor components, LC RIS offers continuous tunability and benefits from mass production capabilities using LCD manufacturing techniques, significantly lowering production costs. A 4x5 LC RIS prototype demonstrates a phase shift of approximately 300 degrees at 7.17 GHz, enabling effective wavefront shaping for high-frequency wireless networks. Furthermore, in a 5G NR-OFDM system, a 5 dB improvement in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) was achieved.

Keywords: Liquid Crystal, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface, RIS