A Metasurface Wave Splitter for Simplified Wireless Signal Reception

Next‐generation wireless networks are expected to utilize limited radiofrequency (RF) resources more efficiently. Currently, the wireless communication systems require an extremely large number of RF chains and hence suffer from prohibitive complexity, hardware cost, and severe energy consumption. Tailoring the electromagnetic (EM) responses by metasurface greatly expands one′s capabilities to manipulate EM waves in a controlled manner. In this work, we developed a prototype of a metasurface‐based EM wave splitter with the contribution from the corresponding receiving antenna array and the designed spectrum reconstruction algorithm to achieve the wireless signal reception in a simplified way. This approach enables instantaneous capture of both frequency‐domain and time‐domain signals from the incident carrier wave, allowing a single chain to effectively receive modulated EM waves across a broad frequency range. By eliminating the need for conventional complex analog or digital circuits for demodulation, this strategy is a potential technique in the development of next‐generation wireless communication technologies.