FLAIRS – eFficient pLasmA Intelligent Reflecting Surface

The FLAIRS project aims at developing and investigating the very new technology of plasma-based Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRSs). In  these devices, reconfigurable plasma elements (e.g., in terms of density) are employed to control the reflection of an impinging Electromagnetic (EM) signal with regards to phase, amplitude, and polarisation.
Plasma-based IRSs can be included in the broader category of Gaseous Plasma Antennas (GPAs), namely devices that exploit plasma, rather than metal, to handle EM signals. GPAs present several unique features with respect to their metallic counterparts.
When the plasma is turned off, a GPA reverts to a dielectric vessel, namely it “disappears” from an electric perspective. Instead, when the plasma is on, the EM fields scattered by a GPA can be massively reconfigured electronically. In fact, the electric response of a GPA depends on the plasma properties (e.g., density), which in turn are determined by the power provided to the discharge.
Thus, GPAs are a game-changing technology for those application fields in which the need to reconfigure the radiation pattern is associated with the necessity to minimise interference or to protect sensitive data (e.g., 5G/6G networks, and satellite).