Japanese researchers have achieved wireless transmission rates of up to 100Gbps with a new transmitter operating in the 275-GHz to 305-GHz range.
A team consisting of researchers from Hiroshima University, Panasonic and and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology developed a terahertz transmitter capable of signal transmission at a per-channel data rate of over ten gigabits per second.
The researchers said the transmitter was integrated as a silicon CMOS integrated circuit. The technology could pave the way for wireless communications with data rates ten times higher than currently allowed by existing technology.
The terahertz band is a sub-millimeter wave frequency resource not currently exploited for wireless communications, and is ideally suited to ultra-high speed communications, the researchers said.
In addition the researchers have demonstrated that modulation technologies such as QAM are feasible at 300-GHz range frequencies.
“Now terahertz wireless technology is armed with very wide bandwidths and QAM-capability. The use of QAM was a key to achieving 100 gigabits per second at 300-GHz,” Hiroshima University professor Minoru Fujishima said.
“Today, we usually talk about wireless data-rates in megabits per second or gigabits per second. But I foresee we'll soon be talking about terabits per second... I want to bring fiber-optic speeds out into the air, and we have taken an important step toward that goal.”
The research into 300-GHz wireless circuits is ongoing. The scientists plan to develop receiver circuits for the band as well as modulation and demodulation circuits.