Time-Varying Dynamic Arrays for MIMO Integrated Sensing and Communication

Integrated Communication And Sensing (ISAC) applications have become a key focus in the next-generation wireless evolution. Concurrent multi-beam MIMO systems are emerging as indispensable technologies to support these ISAC applications by enhancing channel capacities and throughputs as well as enabling rapid localization, situational awareness sensing, and fast full field-of-view (FoV) scanning. Most existing beamformer architectures are time-invariant static whose array configurations, ie elemental amplitudes and phases, remain constant during their beam operations. In contrast, time and frequency can be utilized as new degree-of-freedom to modulate the arrays, resulting in time-varying dynamic array characteristics. This workshop talk will focus on Time-Modulated Arrays (TMAs) and Frequency Modulated Arrays (FMAs) as two classes of such dynamic arrays that exploit their time-varying nature and achieve new array functionalities. Multiple array examples from several research groups will be presented to showcase their use in various ISAC applications, such as Distributed-MIMO (D-MIMO) networks, active relays, TX-RX localization, and MIMO radars.