THz transmitter revs satellite communications
Article By : Panasonic
A research group has developed a transmitter that achieves a communication speed of 105Gbit/s using the frequency range from 290GHz to 315GHz.
Panasonic, Hiroshima University and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology have announced the development of a terahertz transmitter capable of transmitting digital data at a rate exceeding 100Gbit/s (0.1Tbit/s) over a single channel using the 300GHz band. This technology enables faster data rates 10 times or more than that offered by the 5G mobile networks. The THz band is a vast frequency resource to be used for future ultrahigh-speed wireless communications. The research group has developed a transmitter that achieves a communication speed of 105Gbit/s using the frequency range from 290GHz to 315GHz. This range of frequencies is currently unallocated but fall within the frequency range from 275GHz to 450GHz.
![[panasonic diagram (cr)]](/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/04/panasonic_diagram_cr.jpg)
Figure 1: THz wireless links to spaceborne satellites could make Gbit/s connection speeds available to anyone anytime, anywhere-on the ground or in flight.
Using quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), research has shown that the speed of a wireless link was six times higher per-channel data rate, exceeding 100Gbit/s for the first time as an integrated-circuit-based transmitter. At this data rate, the whole content on a DVD can be transferred in a fraction of a second.
The study has developed a transmitter with 10 times transmission power, making the per-channel data rate above 100Gbit/s at 300GHz possible using a single communication channel. Terahertz could offer wireless ultrahigh-speed links to satellites and in-flight network connection speeds. Other possible applications include fast download from contents servers to mobile devices and ultrafast wireless links between base stations,” said Prof. Minoru Fujishima, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University. “With terahertz wireless, we could have light-speed minimum-latency links supporting fibre-optic data rates,” he added.