Received August 11, 2019, accepted August 23, 2019, date of publication August 27, 2019, date of current

version September 11, 2019.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2937849

4-Bit Optimized Coding Metasurface

for Wideband RCS Reduction
YASIR SAIFULLAH , (Student Member, IEEE), ABU BAKAR WAQAS,
GUO-MIN YANG , (Senior Member, IEEE), FUHENG ZHANG ,
AND FENG XU , (Senior Member, IEEE)
Key Laboratory for Information Science of Electromagnetic Waves (MoE), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Corresponding author: Guo-Min Yang ([email protected])
This work was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2017YFA0100203, and in
part by the NSFC under Grant 61571130, Grant 61822107, and Grant U1637213.

ABSTRACT In this paper, a 4-bit reflective coding metasurface with the polarization-insensitive unit cell
is designed for wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction. The metasurface unit has rotational sym-
metry; therefore, it produces the same electromagnetic scattering response for both x- and y-polarizations.
To attain 4-bit phase response, the dimensions of the unit cell are optimized so that a phase difference of 22.5◦
is realized between respective digital elements and the magnitude of reflection is more than 0.95 from 15 GHz
to 40 GHz. Therefore, 16 digital elements have phases of θ, θ + 22.5◦ , θ + 45◦ , θ + 67.5◦ , θ + 90◦ , θ +
112.5◦ , θ + 135◦ , θ + 157.5◦ , θ + 180◦ , θ + 202.5◦ , θ + 225◦ , θ + 247.5◦ , θ + 270◦ , θ + 292.5◦ , θ + 315◦ ,
and θ + 337.5◦ . Discrete water cycle algorithm (DWCA) is applied to the array factor to get the optimal
coding sequence matrix for better RCS reduction. The coding metasurface can achieve more than 10 dB
RCS reduction from 15 GHz to 40 GHz as compared with the same size of a copper sheet. The simulation
and experiment results validate the ability of proposed coding metasurface for robust control of EM-wave
and wideband RCS reduction.

INDEX TERMS 4-bit, coding, discrete water cycle algorithm, metasurface, reflective, radar cross
section (RCS).

I. INTRODUCTION as compared to 3D metamaterial for diverse applications

With the rapid advancements of defense electronics, because of easy fabrication, low complexity, and less thick-
the demand for stealth technology is increased drastically in ness. Although periodicity is not an essential condition for
recent years. Radar cross section (RCS) of a flying object metasurface, yet many designs are based on repeated unit
is an essential factor that evaluates its visibility to radar. cells to arbitrarily control wave propagations, scattering, and
Therefore, the stealth aircraft should have a low radar sig- polarization [5]. For the last two decades, metamaterials have
nature to decrease the detection probability. The traditional been used for many applications, including electromagnetic
stealth technology is based on the coating of the object cloak [6]–[8], negative refraction [9], subwavelength focus-
with radar absorbing material (RAMs) [1] and changing its ing [10], beam manipulation [11] and perfect absorber [12].
shape [2]–[4]. The radar absorbing material increases the Recently, digital metamaterials are introduced by
weight and thickness of the object, whereas the shape stealth C. Giovampaola et al. that brings a new concept of con-
technique makes the design more intricate and affects the trolling the EM response of metasurface unit cell as digital
aerodynamic layout. bits [13] which is different from the effective-medium theory
The metasurface is a kind of subwavelength structure, of conventional metamaterials. T. J. Cui et al. enhanced this
which manipulate the EM waves in a controlled manner to concept of digital metamaterials by introducing the coding
obtain electromagnetic characteristics that are unavailable and programmable metasurface [14]. The coding bits consist
in natural materials. The metasurface is more advantageous of 0◦ and 180◦ phase response, which are considered as ‘‘0’’
and ‘‘1’’ element of coding metasurface. The unit cells are
The associate editor coordinating the review of this article and approving arranged to construct an array, and by changing the coding
it for publication was Ildiko Peter. sequence of the metasurface, diverse EM functionalities can

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Y. Saifullah et al.: 4-Bit Optimized Coding Metasurface for Wideband RCS Reduction

be achieved. It is worth mentioning that digital metasurface

combines the digital codes with physical particles and there-
fore extend the metasurface applications to digital signal
processing and information theory [15]. Coding metasurface
has attracted significant attention in recent years, and many
designs of coding metasurface have been proposed for broad-
band RCS reduction. The simplest case is the 1-bit coding
metasurface [16], the ‘0’ element of the digital metasurface
is designed with 0◦ phase response and ‘1’ element with
180◦ phase response. The opposite phase cancellation has
been adopted to reduce RCS [17], wherein the phase differ-
ence of 180◦ ± 37◦ is maintained for a specific frequency
range. In [18], a 2-bit coding metasurface with four digital
states is presented for RCS reduction at THz frequencies.
In [19], a 3-bit polarization conversion metasurface was
FIGURE 1. Schematic of the proposed unit cell. Here, p = 5 mm,
presented for wideband RCS reduction. w = 0.2 mm, t = 0.15mm, g = 0.4 mm.
Several designs of the artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)
with unit cells having opposite phase responses are designed
in chessboard arrangement to cancel the specular reflec-
tion, and as a result, the radar cross section (RCS) has
been reduced [20]–[22]. The AMC with chessboard arrange-
ment has a drawback of narrow bandwidth. To achieve the
wideband RCS reduction, Li et al. in [23] used a two-
dimensional phase gradient metasurface. A spiral coded
metasurface was introduced by F. Yuan et al. for broadband
RCS reduction [24]. S. Sui et al. in [25] have presented
absorptive metasurface to redirect the EM-wave in a dif-
ferent direction. A 3-bit reflective coding metasurface was
designed using a random combination of unit cells [26].
These designs are based on diffusion metasurface by ran-
dom arrangements of unit cells; hence, the array pattern is
suboptimal. For better RCS reduction, the optimized meta- FIGURE 2. Simulation results of reflection phase and magnitude of the
proposed unit cell.
surface arrangements are introduced in [27]–[30] by using
1-bit coding metasurface. Genetic algorithm (GA) or binary
particle swarm optimization (BPSO) is implemented for opti-
mized metasurface array design. Binary optimization algo- II. UNIT CELL DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
rithms are useful for 1-bit coding metasurface because there The schematic model of the proposed unit cell is presented
are only two possible states, ‘‘0’’ or ‘‘1’’. In this paper, in Fig.1. The unit cell is a sandwich structure with the top,
a 4-bit coding metasurface is introduced, which has 16 digital and the bottom layer is copper while the middle layer is a
states. Binary optimization techniques are not applicable for dielectric substrate. The dielectric substrate F4B (εr = 2.65
4-bit metasurface; therefore, a discrete water cycle algorithm and tan δ = 0.001) has a thickness of 1.5 mm and periodicity
DWCA is applied in this paper which can optimize the 16 dig- of the unit cell is 5 mm. The thickness of top metal patches
ital states. and ground is 0.035 mm.
In this article, a 4-bit reflective coding metasurface with Because of the rotational symmetry of the unit cell, it pro-
the polarization-insensitive unit cell is presented and char- duces the same electromagnetic scattering for both x- and
acterized for wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction. y-polarizations, which is vital for the polarization-insensitive
To achieve a 4-bit phase response, the size of the unit cell response. The periodic boundary and Floquet port are applied
is optimized so that a phase difference of 22.5◦ is realized for the unit cell simulations in CST Microwave Studio and
between respective digital elements. Discrete water cycle frequency domain solver is used. The phase and magnitude
algorithm is applied to array factor to get the optimal coding response of the proposed unit cell from 15 GHz to 40 GHz is
sequence matrix for a better RCS reduction. The coding presented in Fig. 2. The metasurface unit cell with multiple
metasurface can achieve more than 10 dB RCS reduction resonance design is necessary for the wideband operation.
from 15 GHz to 40 GHz as compared with the same size of a The phase and magnitude responses of 4-bit coding meta-
copper sheet. The simulation and experiment results validate surface are illustrated in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively. The
the ability of the proposed coding metasurface for robust sixteen curves show the phase of each unit cell of the meta-
control of EM-wave and wideband RCS reduction. surface. Each unit cell of the coding metasurface exhibits a

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FIGURE 3. The phase response of unit cells vs. frequency with a change in
unit cell length l. FIGURE 5. The accessible phase range for the proposed unit cell from
15 GHz to 40 GHz.

FIGURE 4. The magnitude response of unit cells vs. frequency with a FIGURE 6. The relation of the phase with unit cell length l.
change in unit cell length l.

The proposed design can be used for 1-bit, 2-bit, 3-bit, and
linear response for broadband (15 GHz-40 GHz), and phase 4-bit coding metasurface by proper selection of unit cell’s
difference of 22.5◦ + θ is achieved between respect states length L as illustrated in Table 1. To attain better control
of metasurface unit cell. The proposed unit cell is designed of the scattering patterns, the phase range of the proposed
as a dual resonance structure to accomplish a wide-band unit cell is calculated by changing the width at different fre-
operation. quencies as shown in Fig. 5. Because of the multi-resonance
The unit cell is optimized such that the resonance points structure, the phase coverage of more than 280◦ is observed
are out of working band to get a better reflection magni- from 15 GHz to 40 GHz. To design the unit cell of coding
tude in the operating frequency band (15 GHz-40 GHz). metasurface, the reflection phase variation with respect to the
The first resonance point is before 15 GHz and the second length of the unit cell is shown in Fig. 6. It is evident from
resonance point is after 40 GHz; therefore, the reflection the figure that phase has a linear relation to the length l of the
amplitude value is more than 0.95 for all 16 states of unit cell, which is the most critical design parameter using the
the metasurface unit cell as shown in Fig. 4. To achieve same geometry.
the 4-bit coding metasurface, the reflection phases at 0◦ ,
22.5◦ , 45◦ , 67.5◦ , 90◦ , 112.5◦ , 135◦ , 157.5◦ , 180◦ , 202.5◦ , III. OPTIMIZED ARRAY DESIGN
225◦ , 247.5◦ , 270◦ , 292.5◦ , 315◦ and 337.5◦ as l = Once the metasurface unit cell is designed and optimized,
1.50 mm, 1.60 mm, 1.70 mm, 1.80 mm, 1.94 mm, 2.08 mm, we are going to arrange these unit cells to construct an array.
2.26 mm, 2.48 mm, 2.66 mm, 2.88 mm, 2.96 mm, 3.08 mm, The simplest array is formed by 1-bit coding metasurface
3.18 mm, 3.32 mm, 3.44 mm, and 3.56 mm, respectively. with two digital elements that are placed in an alternative

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TABLE 1. The designed 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4- bit coding metasurface using different size of unit cell.

arrangement to get two beams. The chessboard structure is

based on the principle of destructive interference, the incident
wave is divided into four beams, and the backscattering in
specular direction is minimized. The chessboard structure has
a drawback of narrow bandwidth, so it is not suitable for
broadband RCS reduction application. The diffusion meta-
surface was introduced that randomly disperse the scattering
waves and has better working bandwidth, but the problem
with this metasurface is the lack of optimization.
By using the optimization algorithm for unit cell
arrangement, better RCS reduction could be achieved. For
M × N array of metasurface unit cells, the far-field is illus-
trated by the following equation
Etotal = EP × AF
where Etotal is the scattering far-field, AF is the array factor,
and EP is the pattern of the individual unit cell. For a rectan-
gular array of M × N uniformly spaced elements, the array
factor is expressed as follow,
M X
X N
AF = exp {jkd [(m − 0.5) sin θ cos ϕ
m=1 n=1
+ (n − 0.5) sin θ sin ϕ] + j∅(m, n)}
where d is the periodicity of the unit cell, θ is eleva-
tion angle, ϕ is azimuth angle, j∅(m, n) is the phase of
individual unit cell which could be one of the 16 value
of phase 0◦ , 22.5◦ , 45◦ , 67.5◦ , 90◦ , 112.5◦ , 135◦ , 157.5◦ , FIGURE 7. Flow chart of water cycle algorithm.
180◦ , 202.5◦ , 225◦ , 247.5◦ , 270◦ , 292.5◦ , 315◦ and 337.5◦
in case of 4-bit metasurface.
The metasurface array can be considered as M × N matrix, RCS reduction. The convergence characteristics of discrete
where M and N is the number of unit cells along x- and y- water cycle algorithm (DWCA) is shown in Fig. 8 (a),
axis, respectively. In order to get the low RCS, the discrete the algorithm is applied for 200 iterations, and the optimized
water cycle algorithm [31] is applied to array factor to get value of array factor is achieved. The simulation results of 2D
the optimal coding sequence matrix, as shown in Fig. 7. The and 3D far-field patterns of the proposed metasurface are
fitness function for this optimization problem is given by presented in Fig. 8(b) and Fig. 8(c), respectively. The algo-
rithm is applied in MATLAB to attain the best solution for
fitness = min(AF max )
the array matrix, as shown in Fig. 9, and then this optimum
The water cycle algorithm is applied to minimize the array coding matrix is used to form an array of unit cells for better
factor (AF) at 24 GHz to obtain the optimal solution for RCS reduction. The optimized array design, according to

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FIGURE 9. Optimized unit cell distribution for array formation.

FIGURE 8. (a) Convergence characteristics of Discrete water cycle

algorithm. (b) 2D scattering pattern of the metasurface. (c) 3D scattering
pattern of the optimized metasurface.

the optimized coding matrix, is presented in Fig. 10. The

backscattered characteristic of PEC and optimized coding
metasurface is investigated by comparing the E-field dis-
tribution. It is evident from Fig. 11 that optimized coding
metasurface has more diffused scattering than PEC.
To validate the RCS performance of metasurface, the far-
field pattern is computed at 15 GHz, 24 GHz, and 40 GHz.
CST Microwave Studio is used for full-wave simulation of FIGURE 10. The layout of the 4-bit optimized coding metasurface array.

the array of coding metasurface, and results are presented

in Fig. 13. The 4-bit optimized coding metasurface has RCS
of 12.2 dBsm, 10.4 dBsm, and 16.8 dBsm at 15 GHz, 24 GHz, coding metasurface is much lower than the equal size PEC.
and 40 GHz, respectively. The 16-unit cells of metasurface It is worth mentioning that the scattering beams have close
present distinct phase response, which is useful for altering concentrations at higher frequencies because the periodicity
the uniform phase response of the array. The phase distri- of the array factor reduces with the increase of frequency. The
bution of the adjacent unit cell is nonuniform; therefore, the scattering pattern of the metasurface is different at different
specular reflection is not dominant in a backscattered wave. frequency because of the varying phase layout response of
The optimized coding reflective metasurface distributed the metasurface with the change in frequency. To analyze the
backscattered wave in many directions and suppressed the wideband RCS reduction performance of the coding meta-
amplitude of the main beam. The far-field pattern for coding surface, the comparison between PEC and optimized coding
metasurface shows diffusion scattering pattern as compared metasurface from 15 GHz to 40 GHz is presented in Fig. 14.
to PEC in which most of the energy is present in the single As shown in the figure, the RCS reduction performance
lobe. The RCS reduction of 13.3 dBsm, 18.8 dBsm, and is similar for both x- and y-polarizations. The simulation
16.9 dBsm as compared to PEC is observed at 15 GHz, results show that more than 10 dB RCS reduction is achieved,
24 GHz, and 40 GHz, respectively. Therefore, the RCS of the by using 4-bit coding metasurface, from 15 GHz to 40 GHz

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FIGURE 11. E-field distribution at 24 GHz of (a) PEC (b) 4-bit optimized
coding metasurface.

FIGURE 13. The scattering patterns of the metal (left column) and the
4-bit coding metasurface (right column) in 3D at (a) 15 GHz, (b) 24 GHz,
and (c) 40 GHz.

FIGURE 12. The scattering pattern of different arrangements. (a) All ‘‘0’’
elements. (b) The distribution of ‘‘0’’ and ‘‘1’’ in an alternative
arrangement. (c) The distribution of ‘‘0’’ and ‘‘1’’ in chessboard
arrangement. (d) The optimized coding metasurface.

except for 17 GHz to 18 GHz, where RCS reduction is more

than 7.8 dB. The maximum RCS reduction of 18.8 dBsm is
observed at the frequency of 24 GHz.

IV. FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENTS

To validate the performance, a sample of 4-bit coding meta- FIGURE 14. The RCS of PEC and coding metasurface for TE and TM
surface is fabricated, as shown in Fig. 15. The sample was polarizations.
fabricated using printed circuit board technology. The meta-
surface array comprises of a top metallic patch, a substrate,
and a metal ground. The substrate used here is F4B (εr = receiving antennas are connected at two ports of vector net-
2.65 and tan δ = 0.001) with a thickness of 1.5 mm. The work analyzer (Agilent N5227A).
thickness of top metal patches and ground is 0.035 mm. The The comparison of simulation and measured results of the
experiment is performed in an anechoic chamber as illustrated backward-reflection as a function of frequency is depicted
in Fig. 16. The distance between the sample and the horn in Fig. 17. The RCS result of coding metasurface is
antenna is taken to satisfy the far-field condition. Three sets compared with the same size as the copper sheet. The
of horn antennas were used to cover the band of 15-18 GHz, coding metasurface can achieve more than 10 dB RCS
18-26.5 GHz, and 26.5-40 GHz. The transmitting and reduction from 15 GHz to 40 GHz except for 17 GHz

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FIGURE 15. The fabricated sample of propose metasurface. FIGURE 16. Experimental setup in an anechoic chamber.

TABLE 2. Comparison of our work with previous works.

FIGURE 17. Comparison of simulation and measurement results.

V. CONCLUSION
A 4-bit reflective coding metasurface with the polarization-
insensitive unit cell is presented for wideband radar cross
section (RCS) reduction. To attain 4-bit phase response, the
dimensions of the unit cell are optimized in such a way that
to 18 GHz where RCS reduction is more than 7.8 dB. a phase difference of 22.5◦ is realized between respective
The small deviation between simulation and measured digital elements and magnitude of reflection is more than
results is considered as fabrication error and measurement 0.95 from 15 GHz to 40 GHz. Discrete water cycle algorithm
tolerance. is applied to array factor to get the optimal coding sequence
The comparison of this paper with previous research matrix for better RCS reduction. The proposed metasurface
is presented in Table 2. The proposed design has an has achieved more than 10 dB RCS reduction from 15 GHz
advantage in the bandwidth expansion of RCS reduction to 40 GHz. The simulation and measurement results validate
with a ratio bandwidth (RBW) of 2.6:1 and fractional the ability of 4-bit coding metasurface for robust control of
bandwidth (FBW) of 91% and also has less thickness EM-wave and wideband RCS reduction.
(0.13λo ) which contributes to lower weight as well as less
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Art. no. 39252. YASIR SAIFULLAH (S’19) received the B.Sc.
[19] P. Su, Y. Zhao, S. Jia, W. Shi, and H. Wang, ‘‘An ultra-wideband and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from
and polarization-independent metasurface for RCS reduction,’’ Sci. Rep., the University of Engineering and Technology,
vol. 6, Feb. 2016, Art. no. 20387. Taxila, Pakistan, in 2011 and 2016, respectively.
[20] J. C. I. Galarregui, A. T. Pereda, J. L. M. de Falcón, I. Ederra, He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the
R. Gonzalo, and P. de Maagt, ‘‘Broadband radar cross-section reduction School of Information Science and Technology,
using AMC technology,’’ IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 61, no. 12, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
pp. 6136–6143, Dec. 2013. From 2012 to 2013, he was an Operational
[21] A. Y. Modi, C. A. Balanis, and C. Birtcher, ‘‘Novel technique for enhancing Engineer with Pakistan Telecommunication Com-
RCS reduction bandwidth of checkerboard surfaces,’’ in Proc. IEEE Int. pany Limited (PTCL), Pakistan. His research
Symp. Antennas Propag. USNC/URSI Nat. Radio Sci. Meeting, Jul. 2017,
interests include microwave, antenna design, coding, and programmable
pp. 1911–1912.
metasurfaces.
[22] Y. Zheng, J. Gao, X. Cao, Z. Yuan, and H. Yang, ‘‘Wideband
RCS reduction of a microstrip antenna using artificial magnetic con-
ductor structures,’’ IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 14,
pp. 1582–1585, 2015.
ABU BAKAR WAQAS received the B.Sc. and
[23] Y. Li, J. Zhang, S. Qu, J. Wang, H. Chen, Z. Xu, and A. Zhang, ‘‘Wide-
band radar cross section reduction using two-dimensional phase gradient M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the
metasurfaces,’’ Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 104, Jun. 2014, Art. no. 221110. University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila,
[24] F. Yuan, G.-M. Wang, H.-X. Xu, T. Cai, X.-J. Zou, and Z.-H. Pang, Pakistan, in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He is cur-
‘‘Broadband RCS reduction based on spiral-coded metasurface,’’ IEEE rently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the School
Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 16, pp. 3188–3191, 2017. of Information Science and Technology, Fudan
[25] S. J. Li, X. Y. Cao, L. M. Xu, L. J. Zhou, H. H. Yang, J. F. Han, Z. Zhang, University, Shanghai, China. He served his Alma
D. Zhang, X. Liu, C. Zhang, Y. J. Zheng, and Y. Zhao, ‘‘Ultra-broadband Mater as a Lecturer for four years. His research
reflective metamaterial with RCS reduction based on polarization conver- interests include quantum computation, quantum
tor, information entropy theory and genetic optimization algorithm,’’ Sci. communications, smart grid, and optimization of
Rep., vol. 5, Nov. 2016, Art. no. 37409. electrical engineering problems.

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 Y. Saifullah et al.: 4-Bit Optimized Coding Metasurface for Wideband RCS Reduction

GUO-MIN YANG (S’07–M’10–SM’17) was born FENG XU (S’06–M’08–SM’14) received the B.E.
in Zhejiang, China. He received the B.S. degree degree (Hons.) in information engineering from
(Hons.) in communication engineering from the Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2003, and
Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, China, the Ph.D. degree (Hons.) in electronic engineering
in 2002, the M.S. degree in electronic engineering from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 2008.
from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, From 2008 to 2010, he was a Postdoctoral Fel-
China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree in electri- low with the NOAA Center for Satellite Appli-
cal and computer engineering from Northeastern cation and Research, Camp Springs, MD, USA.
University, Boston, MA, USA, in 2010. In 2010, From 2010 to 2013, he was with Intelligent
he joined the Faculty of the School of Information Automation Inc., Rockville, MD, USA. He was a
and Technology, Fudan University, where he is currently an Associate Pro- Research Scientist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
fessor. He has authored 46 journal publications and 40 conference articles. MD, USA. He is currently a Professor with the School of Information
His research interests include antenna miniaturization, magneto-dielectric Science and Technology and the Vice Director with the MoE Key Laboratory
materials, metamaterials, frequency selective surfaces, microwave wireless for Information Science of Electromagnetic Waves, Fudan University. He
power transfer, RF energy harvesting, and inverse scattering problems in has authored more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, coauthored
electromagnetics. two books, and holds two patents, among many conference articles. His
research interests include electromagnetic scattering modeling, SAR infor-
FUHENG ZHANG received the B.E. degree in mation retrieval, and radar system development.
electronic engineering from the Changshu Insti- Dr. Xu was a recipient of the Second-Class National Nature Science Award
tute of Technology, Suzhou, China, in 2012. He of China, in 2011, the Early Career Award of the IEEE Geoscience and
is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Remote Sensing Society, in 2014, and the SUMMA Graduate Fellowship
Key Laboratory for Information Science of Elec- in the advanced electromagnetics area, in 2007. He is currently the Founding
tromagnetic Waves, Fudan University, Shanghai, Chair of the IEEE GRSS Shanghai Chapter, which was awarded as the GRSS
China. Best Chapter, in 2017. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE
His research interests include wideband GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS.
microstrip antenna design and synthesis, metasur-
face design and synthesis, and signal integrity.

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