FCC clears path for terahertz wireless data
Never mind the possibilities opened up by millimeter wave 5G and other many-gigahertz technologies -- the FCC is already thinking about the next generation beyond that. The Commission has voted unanimously in favor of creating a category of experimental licenses that range from 95GHz to a whopping 3THz -- effectively, the limits of usable wireless technology. The Spectrum Horizons order would let companies experiment with this ultra-high frequency tech for as long as 10 years, and would make it easier for them to sell real-world products while they're in that test phase.
The measure also sets aside 21.2GHz of spectrum to share for unlicensed devices.
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Breakthrough Could Lead to Amplifiers for 6G Signals
With 5G just rolling out and destined to take years to mature, it might seem odd to worry about 6G. But some engineers say that this is the perfect time to worry about it. One group, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been developing a device that could be critical to efficiently pushing 6G's terahertz-frequency signals out of the antennas of future smartphones and other connected devices. They reported key aspects of the device—including an "n-polar" gallium nitride high-electron mobility transistor—in two papers that recently appeared in IEEE Electron Device Letters.
Testing so far has focused on 94 gigahertz frequencies, which are at the edge of terahertz. "We have just broken through records of millimeter-wave operation by factors which are just stunning," says Umesh K. Mishra, an IEEE Fellow who heads the UCSB group that published the papers. "If you're in the device field, if you improve things by 20 percent people are happy. Here, we have improved things by 200 to 300 percent."
Journal References:
Wenjian Liu, Islam Sayed, Brian Romanczyk, et al. Ru/N-Polar GaN Schottky Diode With Less Than 2 μA/cm² Reverse Current - IEEE Journals & Magazine, (DOI: 10.1109/LED.2020.3014524)
Brian Romanczyk, Weiyi Li, Matthew Guidry, et al. N-polar GaN-on-Sapphire Deep Recess HEMTs with High W-Band Power Density - IEEE Journals & Magazine, (DOI: 10.1109/LED.2020.3022401)
Related: FCC Will Allow Wireless Devices to Operate in the 95 GHz to 3 THz Range
Atom-Thin Switches Could Route 5G, and Even 6G Radio Signals
Samsung's 6G White Paper: Available by 2030, 1,000 Gbps Peak Speed, 1 Gbps "User Experienced" Speed
Scientists Build Ultra-High-Speed Terahertz Wireless Chip
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: 5, Interesting) by jmorris on Sunday March 17 2019, @08:31PM (4 children)
Out of almost 3000 GHz of spectrum they will allow unlicensed operation in a whole 21.2 (don't forget that all important .2!) of it. WiFi is the biggest thing in wireless outside of cellular and it too was forced to operate in a tiny hole in the spectrum that was considered too useless to sell off since microwave ovens used it. Yet 2.4GHz WiFi managed to find ways to make use of it since it was all we had. This is retarded, they should have at least given out a nice contiguous 100Ghz chunk somewhere in the highest reaches of that spectrum and see what happened with it. This is what regulatory capture looks like.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 17 2019, @08:51PM (1 child)
Well, it's better than nothing.
It matters where that 21.2 GHz (total of smaller slices) is distributed. The range is going to be very short, pretty much line of sight, for most of that spectrum, but potentially worse closer to the 3 THz end.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by exaeta on Monday March 18 2019, @12:49AM
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 18 2019, @03:27AM (1 child)
Given the limited propagation, go ahead and experiment on whatever THz frequencies you like, the chance of bothering anyone or getting caught is (at this time) vanishingly low.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 18 2019, @05:45AM
Because science should be criminalized.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 17 2019, @09:02PM (1 child)
Sometimes referred to as T.H.Z. Rays. And Dems proposed, let's protect our precious Border with the T.H.Z. Waves. "New imaging technology at the land ports of entry to ensure all vehicles are scanned before entering the country for drugs and other contraband." The Press Release about their Dumb Proposal. appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-democratic-conferees-unveil-proposal-for-smart-effective-border-security [house.gov]
I told them NO. I said, we need Wall. Or Barrier, they say Barrier is O.K., we compromised on Barrier. With the spikes at the top. Guy climbs to the top of that one, the spikes get him. Possibly kill him. Or he gets stuck on the spikes. Can't eat, can't drink, can't screw -- and can barely breathe. Border Patrol drives up and they're like, "oh, the spikes got another one, we'll leave him as a warning!" You can't do that with T.H.Z. Waves. You shoot the T.H.Z. at a guy, maybe he doesn't even notice. He goes on with his day. His month. His year. And after many years -- cataract. He's blind, he gets the cataract surgery. On Taxpayers Dime. Meanwhile this guy has done so much harm to our Country. With the drugs, the rapes, the human trafficking, the murders and the everything else. I said, is there anything else we can do with T.H.Z.? And F.C.C. said, we need 6G. Because 5G is much too slow. They put in 5G, it was supposed to be very fast. It was very fast -- until everybody got on it. So we need 6G. But 6G, right now, there's nothing, it hasn't been discovered yet. So we said, let's let folks look for something. For 6G, or whatever they find. And you can get a very special license to go looking. Like a hunting license. But you don't come home with these corpses dripping blood. You don't have the huge chunks of meat in your freezer. You're hunting for something that's almost invisible. T.H.Z., you can be standing right next to it. And not see it. Like our amazing F-35. And possibly this will be the next F-35.
Or our next U.S.S. Gerald Ford. They built a gigantic ship, known as supercarrier. And the machine that lands the planes, called catapult, they didn't have. It didn't exist. And they were doing a big experiment, billions of dollars, trying to discover that one. We had Steam catapult. But somehow, it wasn't good enough. They wanted digital. So we have this ship, they built it for digital. Assuming they'll find the digital. Maybe they will. And maybe they won't. I said, can we stop looking for the digital, can we put in Steam? And they told me "yes Sir, right away Sir!" While shaking their heads "no." And the Steam -- I can call and check -- I don't think they put the Steam in. And I think it's going to be VERY VERY expensive to put it in. And yet, less money than the digital. Because they may never find the digital.
T.H.Z., we're not spending any money on that one. And possibly we'll make some money on the licenses for that one. And it's something any American company, or person can experiment with -- if they get the license. Hell, ZTE, if ZTE wants to give it a shot, why not? They're China, that's O.K., we love them. Because they create a lot of jobs. Many jobs in China. Because of American engenuity. Because of me. You're welcome!!!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 18 2019, @02:17PM
A problem with TerraHertz waves is propagation. Therefore they are not likely to propagate far enough to act as a weapon.
One solution would be to put a TerraWatt or more of power behind it. A TerraHertz / TerraWatt transmitter.
It would have good 'in building penetration' for mobile phones -- but the mobile set battery life would be adversely affected by the mobile TerraWatt transmitter.
As a weapon, the TerraWatt transmitter might work well as a defense, but it would not properly discriminate between white and non-white skinned persons. And discrimination is a requirement.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?