A novel concept for reconfigurable frequency selective surfaces based on silicon switches

The authors describe a novel concept for reconfigurable frequency selective surfaces based on metallic dipole and cross-dipole elements connected by switches on an exposed silicon substrate. As the conductivity of silicon can be varied over a large dynamic range by photonic excitation, it represents a good candidate substrate material for producing effective switches. The genetic algorithm was used to obtain optimal performance of the switch with respect to variations of the geometric and electrical parameters of the design for desired excitation frequencies.