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Scientists build ultra-high-speed terahertz wireless chip:
To enable data transmission speeds that surpass the 5th Generation (5G) standards for telecommunications, scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Osaka University in Japan have built a new chip using a concept called photonic topological insulators.
Published recently in Nature Photonics, the researchers showed that their chip can transmit terahertz (THz) waves resulting in a data rate of 11 Gigabits per second (Gbit/s), which is capable of supporting real-time streaming of 4K high-definition video, and exceeds the hitherto theoretical limit of 10 Gbit/s for 5G wireless communications.
[...] fundamental challenges need to be tackled before THz waves could be used reliably in telecommunications. Two of the biggest issues are the material defects and transmission error rates found in conventional waveguides such as crystals or hollow cables.
These issues were overcome using Photonic Topological Insulators (PTI), which allows light waves to be conducted on the surface and edges of the insulators, akin to a train following railroads, rather than through the material.
[...] Their discovery could pave the way for more PTI THz interconnects—structures that connect various components in a circuit—to be integrated into wireless communication devices, to give the next generation '6G' communications an unprecedented terabytes-per-second speed (10 to 100 times faster than 5G) in future.
[...] "By employing THz technology, it can potentially boost intra-chip and inter-chip communication to support Artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies, such as interconnected self-driving cars, which will need to transmit data quickly to other nearby cars and infrastructure to navigate better and also to avoid accidents."
[...] Areas of potential application for THz interconnect technology will include data centers, IOT devices, massive multicore CPUs (computing chips) and long-range communications, including telecommunications and wireless communication such as Wi-Fi.
Journal Reference:
Yihao Yang, Yuichiro Yamagami, Xiongbin Yu, et al. Terahertz topological photonics for on-chip communication, Nature Photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-020-0618-9)
Previously:
(2020-07-15) Samsung's 6G White Paper: Available by 2030, 1,000 Gbps Peak Speed, 1 Gbps "User Experienced" Speed
(2020-06-02) Atom-Thin Switches Could Route 5G, and Even 6G Radio Signals
(2020-01-21) Record-Breaking Terahertz Laser Beam
(2019-03-17) FCC Will Allow Wireless Devices to Operate in the 95 GHz to 3 THz Range
(2018-03-30) Smaller and Faster: The Terahertz Computer Chip is Now Within Reach
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday August 06 2020, @01:40PM (2 children)
"Amateur radio operators utilizing submillimeter frequencies often attempt to set two-way communication distance records, and they have achieved distances up to 1.42 kilometres (0.88 mi) on submillimeter waves"
So even at stupendously high powers, it's not really going to be much good for things like 5G.
Local wifi, maybe, if you're really lucky.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 06 2020, @02:31PM (1 child)
There are applications where you want restricted range, and high speed never hurts.
Still, this is more likely to find use in places like SpaceX and Amazon's fleet of internet satellites as a sat-to-sat backhaul channel.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 08 2020, @01:29AM
Followup thought: SETI isn't catching any comms from interstellar species because the frequencies they use are high beyond our perception, not to hide from us, just because it's more practical to communicate broadband data at higher frequencies, particularly across interstellar space.
🌻🌻 [google.com]