Wi-Fi advances in Japan smash record

Wi-Fi advances in Japan smash record

Researchers in Japan have smashed a Wi-Fi record, confirming theories that a new "T-ray" band could offer huge bandwidth for data transmission.

The study on wireless data transmission in the terahertz band, an uncharted part of the electro-magnetic spectrum, is published in Electronics Letters. This data rate is a whopping 20 times higher than the best commonly used Wi-Fi standard.

A team from the Tokyo Institute of Technology demonstrated 3Gb/s transmission at 542GHz. The T-ray band lies between the microwave and far-infrared regions of the spectrum, and is currently completely unregulated by telecommunications agencies.

It is believed that new components will allow this technology to be added to smartphones or Wi-Fi routers. In November, electronic component firm ROHM demonstrated a 1.5Gb/s (1.5 billion bits per second) transfer rate at a frequency of 300GHz.

T-ray uses frequencies from about 300 gigahertz (300GHz or about 60 times higher than the current highest wi-fi standard) to about 3THz, 10 times higher again.

Offering next-generation Wi-Fi is a constant challenge for technology firms, as some new advances are too costly and too complex to be used in consumer products. The researchers believe that terahertz Wi-Fi would probably only work over ranges of about 10 metres, supporting data rates up to 100Gb/s, which is close to 15 times higher than the next-generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard currently under development.

Terahertz waves penetrate many materials as effectively as X-rays but deposit far less energy and cause less damage to devices. The team's 1mm-square device uses a resonant tunnelling diode, or RTD, which makes the diode "resonate", which in the current work's design means it sprays out waves in the terahertz band.