Covering all the
angles
Terahertz waves
leak out of a small slit in the antenna at different angles, depending
on frequency. The
receiver can be tuned to select one angle, plucking a single data
channel from a
stream containing many channels. Mittleman lab/Brown University
(September 14, 2015) Terahertz
waves, operating at a much higher frequency than microwaves, could one day be
used to carry data many times faster than today’s cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
More work needs to be done before terahertz technology is deployed, but a
Brown-led research team has made progress on one important part: multiplexing
and de-multiplexing a terahertz stream.
Terahertz radiation could one day provide the backbone for
wireless systems that can deliver data up to one hundred times faster than
today’s cellular or Wi-Fi networks. But there remain many technical challenges
to be solved before terahertz wireless is ready for prime time.
Researchers from Brown University have taken a major step
toward addressing one of those challenges. They’ve developed what they believe
to be the first system for multiplexing terahertz waves. Multiplexers are
devices that enable separate streams of data to travel through a single medium.
It’s the technology that makes it possible for a single cable to carry multiple
TV channels or for a fiber optic line to carry thousands of phone calls at the
same time.
“Any terahertz communications application is going to need
some form of multiplexing and demultiplexing,” said Daniel Mittleman, professor
of engineering at Brown and senior author of a paper describing the new device.
“This is, to our knowledge, the first time anyone has demonstrated a viable
strategy for multiplexing in the terahertz range.”
The research was published September 14 in Nature Photonics.
Today’s cellular and Wi-Fi networks rely on microwaves to
carry voice conversations and data. But the increasing demands for data
transfer are quickly becoming more than microwaves can handle. Terahertz waves
have a much higher frequency and therefore more potential bandwidth. Scientists
and engineers have only recently begun exploring the potential of terahertz
waves, however. As a result, many of the components for a terahertz wireless
network — including multiplexers — have not yet been developed.