Digitally Coded Resistor Arrays: The Unification Control Method of Amplitude, Phase, and Polarization in Metasurface

Abstract Over the past decade, metasurfaces have garnered widespread attention from researchers due to their exceptional ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves. However, the realization of multifunctional metasurfaces often entails intricate unit designs, where the units typically require the combined influence of factors such as voltage, temperature, light intensity, and rotation angle to achieve diverse electromagnetic responses. The introduction of multiple tuning methods also makes it difficult to unify the dimensions of describing the physical state of the metasurface. This study presents a metasurface unit based on a Ring‐shaped SMD (Surface Mounted Devices) Resistor Array (RSRA) to simplify the design of multifunctional metasurfaces. The proposal of RSRA not only breaks through the structure‐dominated design approach of metasurface units, but more importantly, it simplifies the modulation of unit amplitude, phase, and polarization into the resistance value of digital coding resistors. By assembling these units into an array, the study achieves the functionalities of side‐lobe suppression, high‐purity OAM beam, and near‐field imaging. In conclusion, the introduction of RSRA not only liberates the parameter redundancy imposed by structures but also realizes the digitization and unification of the metasurface design process. This field‐circuit coupling design approach offers a novel perspective for multifunctional tunable metasurfaces.