  The ability of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) to produce complex
radiation patterns in the far-field is determined by various factors, such as
the unit-cell's size, shape, spatial arrangement, tuning mechanism, the
communication and control circuitry's complexity, and the illuminating source's
type (point/planewave). Research on RIS has been mainly focused on two areas:
first, the optimization and design of unit-cells to achieve desired
electromagnetic responses within a specific frequency band; and second,
exploring the applications of RIS in various settings, including system-level
performance analysis. The former does not assume any specific radiation pattern
on the surface level, while the latter does not consider any particular
unit-cell design. Both approaches largely ignore the complexity and power
requirements of the RIS control circuitry. As we progress towards the
fabrication and use of RIS in real-world settings, it is becoming increasingly
necessary to consider the interplay between the unit-cell design, the required
surface-level radiation patterns, the control circuit's complexity, and the
power requirements concurrently. In this paper, a benchmarking framework for
RIS is employed to compare performance and analyze tradeoffs between the
unit-cell's specified radiation patterns and the control circuit's complexity
for far-field beamforming, considering different diode-based unit-cell designs
for a given surface size. This work lays the foundation for optimizing the
design of the unit-cells and surface-level radiation patterns, facilitating the
optimization of RIS-assisted wireless communication systems.
