Japanese Scientists Deliver Faster WiFi Using the T-rays Radio Spectrum

A group of Japanese scientists working out of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) have managed to push wireless (wifi) data rates of between 2-3Gbps (Gigabits per second) over the unregulated T-rays band of the electromagnetic radio spectrum (300-3000GHz).

The development, which could one day help to manage the increasing problem of congestion in wireless networks, was achieved by using Terahertz-Oscillating Resonant Tunnelling Diodes (RTDs). According to the BBC, this could in theory be developed to support data rates of up to 100Gbps!

IET Digital Library Letter

Direct intensity modulation and wireless data transmission characteristics of terahertz-oscillating resonant tunnelling diodes (RTDs) is reported. A direct intensity modulation of the RTD oscillators was demonstrated, and the frequency response was measured. It was found that the 3 dB cutoff modulation frequency was limited by the parasitic elements of the external circuit, and increased up to 4.5 GHz by reducing such parasitic elements.

Wireless data transmission by direct amplitude shift keying was demonstrated using an RTD oscillating at 542 GHz with cutoff frequency of 1.1 GHz. The BERs for bit rates of 2 and 3 Gbit/s were found to be 2×10−8 and 3×10−5, respectively.

Delivering wifi over the terahertz band would certainly have some advantages as T-rays are known to be very good at penetrating materials, much like X-rays but without the same level of damaging effects. But they do have problems and operating at such high frequencies limits their coverage, which only really makes them effective for home/local style networking.

In any case the commercialisation of a T-rays based wifi solution is still just a pipe dream and we probably won’t be seeing any such solutions on the market for quite a few years to come.