First Demonstration of Ultra-high Data Rate Transmission with Steerable Antennas Using Terahertz Frequencies

At the NGMN Industry Conference and Exhibition taking place at Frankfurt on 24-25 March 2015 the German TERAPAN (Terahertz Communication for future Personal Area Networks) consortium demonstrates multi-gigabit data rate transmission at a carrier frequency of 300 Gigahertz. For the first time steerable antennas are employed at these elevated frequency bands to enable advanced applications in future indoor wireless networks such as smart offices and data centers. Project partners are the Technische Universität Braunschweig, the Universität Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institut für angewandte Festkörperphysik at Freiburg.

Using the terahertz frequency spectrum (300 Gigahertz – 3 Terahertz) opens up the possibility for wireless communication links that can exchange terabytes of data within a few seconds. The cost-efficient implementation is possible for the first time using novel terahertz monolithically integrated transceiver chips and will pave the way for future wireless multi-gigabit communications.

The goal of the TERAPAN project aims at demonstrating adaptive wireless point-to-point terahertz communication systems for indoor environments and validating their performance for distances of up to 10 meters at data rates of up to 100 Gigabit per second . “This includes building the demonstrator with 35 nanometers InGaAs/GaAs-based chips. The validation project is a milestone towards the development of commercial applications of wireless transmission at Terahertz frequencies and complement the ongoing standardization activities in this area”, says Prof. Thomas Kürner, TERAPAN project coordinator.

TERAPAN is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the framework of its VIP (validating the innovation potential) initiative and runs from August 2013 to July 2016. The Project partners complement their expertise in design and fabrication of monolithically integrated transceiver chips including their characterization with the design of wireless systems at terahertz frequencies.