The 2026 roadmap on wireless and microwave metasurfaces

Commonly, the electromagnetic properties of a microwave metamaterial are defined by its structure rather than by its chemical composition. Due to the nature of microwaves – electromagnetic radiation at frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz – metamaterials are usually composed of a combination of conductive and dielectric materials, with subwavelength patterns defining how a wave interacts with it. A metamaterial which is very thin with respect to the operating wavelength is usually referred to as a metasurface. While the term “metamaterial” was first coined around the turn of the last millennium, antennas engineers have been designing engineered structures which would now be called metamaterials since at least the work of Ben Munk in the 1970s, and with the broadest definitions since artificial dielectric lenses were developed by Winston E. Kock at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1940s. This historic link to telecommunications means similar techniques are used at lower frequencies, so this roadmap also includes metamaterials for other wireless applications.