Could the superyacht world see even faster connections in the future? By 2020, 5G is set to become available along with the promise of improved connections and faster data transfer rates.
However, researchers are considering whether there is a chance speeds can get faster than 5G before 2020? In San Francisco this week, this will be the topic at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference.
The discussion will talk about a terahertz transmitter developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Panasonic Corporation, and Hiroshima University.
This transmitter operates using a frequency range from 290 GHz to 315 GHz and can transmit digital data at a rate of 105 gigabits per second — which is a communication speed that’s at least 10 times as fast as 5G networks. The transmitter uses a frequency that falls within a currently unallocated range of 275 GHz to 450 GHz.
Minoru Fujishima from the Department of Semiconductor Electronics and Integration Science at Hiroshima University explained:
“Today, we usually talk about wireless data rates in megabits per second or gigabits per second. But I foresee we’ll soon be talking about terabits per second. That’s what THz wireless technology offers. Such extreme speeds are currently confined in optical fibres. I want to bring fibre optic speeds out into the air, and we have taken an important step towards that goal. We plan to develop receiver circuits for the 300GHz band, as well as modulation and demodulation circuits that are suitable for ultra-high-speed communications.”