About this Research Topic
Current reconfigurable RF and mm-wave hardware is still in infancy. Even though reconfigurability has been present in RF devices and components for at least two decades, these devices have traditionally experienced high levels of insertion losses and low switching speeds and, have almost always been an afterthought. These early tunable devices including passive RF device (filter, antenna, phase shifter) usually have a semiconductor device (diode or transistor) in order to gain a degree of controllability, to a limited extent. There have been, however, several efforts to integrate externally controllable bulk tuneable materials, such as Liquid Crystals (LCs), Ferro-Electrics (FE) and, most recently, Electro-Chromic (EC) materials with RF and mm-wave circuits, such as filters, antennas and phase shifters.
As part of this topic theme, our focus is three-fold:
1. Provision of a chronological overview of reconfigurable technologies.
2. How can the advances in material science development be applied to furthering our quest towards reconfigurable materials?
3. What application-related perspectives are these materials opening?
At present, bulk-reconfigurable hardware technologies suffer serious drawbacks, epitomised in the low tunability (reconfigurable range, such as LCs and ECs), slow speeds (LCs and ECs), inadequate values of dielectric permittivities for RF/mm-wave applications (FEs and to extent ECs) and high losses. Beside the pure device performance other questions like reliability, production-costs and-yield or compatibility with established technologies need to be examined when it comes to commercial industrial scale implementation. Therefore, there exists an urgency to address these problems in a timely manner so as to investigate, characterize and create new technologies capable of supporting forthcoming 6G technologies.
The primary goal of the present research topic is to understand how the new and forthcoming technologies could help bring the quest for true RF/mm-wave reconfigurability on the path of success. As a possible example of the new technologies possibly capable of addressing reconfigurability, Transition Metal Oxides (TMOs) exhibiting Resistive Switching (RS) have been recently shown to exhibit favorable characteristics extending up to 10s of GHz.
In the present research topic, we are interested in all bulk-tuneable technologies capable of delivering hardware reconfigurability, associated and geared towards 5G, 6G and beyond technologies. We are interested in both relatively well-established technologies, such as LCs, FEs and ECs, but we also encourage new, prospective technologies such as TMOs and 2D materials (graphene and MoS2 for example) whose characteristics can be controlled using an external DC bias voltage.
Several types of articles will be welcome, encompassing articles reviewing established technologies and their potential adaptation towards 5G, 6G and beyond technologies to original research articles on new technologies and their possible use for the enablement of reconfigurability.
As part of this topic theme, our focus is three-fold:
1. Provision of a chronological overview of reconfigurable technologies.
2. How can the advances in material science development be applied to furthering our quest towards reconfigurable materials?
3. What application-related perspectives are these materials opening?
At present, bulk-reconfigurable hardware technologies suffer serious drawbacks, epitomised in the low tunability (reconfigurable range, such as LCs and ECs), slow speeds (LCs and ECs), inadequate values of dielectric permittivities for RF/mm-wave applications (FEs and to extent ECs) and high losses. Beside the pure device performance other questions like reliability, production-costs and-yield or compatibility with established technologies need to be examined when it comes to commercial industrial scale implementation. Therefore, there exists an urgency to address these problems in a timely manner so as to investigate, characterize and create new technologies capable of supporting forthcoming 6G technologies.
The primary goal of the present research topic is to understand how the new and forthcoming technologies could help bring the quest for true RF/mm-wave reconfigurability on the path of success. As a possible example of the new technologies possibly capable of addressing reconfigurability, Transition Metal Oxides (TMOs) exhibiting Resistive Switching (RS) have been recently shown to exhibit favorable characteristics extending up to 10s of GHz.
In the present research topic, we are interested in all bulk-tuneable technologies capable of delivering hardware reconfigurability, associated and geared towards 5G, 6G and beyond technologies. We are interested in both relatively well-established technologies, such as LCs, FEs and ECs, but we also encourage new, prospective technologies such as TMOs and 2D materials (graphene and MoS2 for example) whose characteristics can be controlled using an external DC bias voltage.
Several types of articles will be welcome, encompassing articles reviewing established technologies and their potential adaptation towards 5G, 6G and beyond technologies to original research articles on new technologies and their possible use for the enablement of reconfigurability.
Keywords: Liquid Crystals, Ferro-Electrics, Electro-Chromic Materials, 2D-Materials, and Transition Metal Oxides
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
