An Automated Over-the-Air Radiated Testing Platform for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface

In the relentless quest to enhance wireless communication
capabilities, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)
has emerged as a technology of immense promise. Armed with
the beamforming capabilities, RIS can intelligently engineer
and control wireless propagation environments. Consequently,
an in-depth knowledge of RIS radiation characteristics has
become important. This paper presents an automated over-theair
(OTA) radiated testing platform designed for characterizing
RIS radiation. Operating in an anechoic chamber setup in a
fully automated manner, the platform system utilizes multiple
probes to expedite testing and employs a vector network analyzer
(VNA) for testing signal measurement and recording. Controlled
by a programmed controller, the system efficiently manages RIS
operation with predefined code-book while the controller directs
the system to conduct radiation measurements. To validate the
designed testing platform system, RIS beam steering radiation
measurements were conducted using a 2-bit 10 × 10 RIS. The
measured results demonstrate the capabilities and reliability of
the automated testing system.