Redefining Lensing with Adaptive Metastructures: A UltrawidebandReconfigurable 3D-Printed Metalens for Future Wireless Front-Ends

For the first time, the authors propose an additively manufactured reconfigurable metalens that enables ultra-wideband operation and wide-angular coverage for adaptive mmWave front-ends. The design uses a periodic honeycomb lattice in which mechanical compression shifts the operating frequency while preserving the spatial phase-state distribution. This reconfiguration is fully passive, requiring no biasing circuitry, switching networks, or active materials, and is achieved through low-cost stereolithographic fabrication using Formlabs Flexible 80A photopolymer. In proof-of-concept testing, the metalens maintained a peak realized gain of 29.5 dBi with a 1-dB bandwidth spanning 22–40 GHz across all compression states. By leveraging additive manufacturing to realize a mechanically adaptive aperture, the design also achieves a wide 3-dB angular coverage of ±38°, confirming stable directional performance during reconfiguration. With its ultra-wideband behavior, mechanical tunability, and low-cost fabrication, the proposed metalens provides a practical foundation for adaptive mmWave front-ends requiring beam flexibility without the overhead of active components.