The New Terahertz radio transmitter Internet at 100 Gbps

Surfing the Internet or playing online games in a jiffy may now be possible as Japanese scientists have developed a new technology which will allow data transmissions of upto 100Gbps.

The Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Panasonic and Hiroshima University claim to have developed a terahertz (THz) transmitter that can achieve wireless data connections of up to 100Gbps (gigabits per second).

This technology could open a new frontier in wireless communication with data rates ten times higher than current technology allows. Details of the technology were presented at the “International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) 2016,” held from January 31 to February 4 in San Francisco, California.

The development of a CMOS transmitter operating in the 275-305GHz range has allowed them to establish high-speed connections over multiple channels, and created the headroom needed for speeds that would rival those of fiber cables. Currently, this frequency range is unallocated and is due to be discussed at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2019.

The THz band’s frequencies are higher than those used by the millimetre-wave wireless local area network (from 57 to 66GHz), and the available bandwidths are wider. THz is said to be suited to ultrahigh-speed communications, since the speed of a wireless link is proportional to the bandwidth in use.

Most of the wireless communication technologies today use lower frequencies (5GHz or below) with high-order digital modulation schemes, such as the quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), to increase data rates within limited bandwidths available. The research group has successfully demonstrated that QAM is feasible at 300 GHz with CMOS and that THz wireless technology could offer a serious boost in wireless communication speed.

“Now THz 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,” said Prof. Minoru Fujishima, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University.

“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. That’s what THz wireless technology offers. Such extreme speeds are currently confined in optical fibers. I want to bring fiber-optic speeds out into the air, and we have taken an important step toward that goal,” he added.

Prof Fujishima added that the research group plans to further develop 300GHz ultrahigh-speed wireless circuits.

This work was supported by the R&D on wireless transceiver systems with CMOS technology in 300-GHz band, as part of an R&D program on key technology in terahertz frequency bands of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.