Rohde & Schwarz and Fraunhofer research 6G at THz frequencies
November 21, 2019
The collaboration has resulted in a wireless transmit and receive system operating between 270 and 320 GHz
Rohde & Schwarz, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF are making progress in the terahertz (THz) frequency band, related to the 6th generation wireless mobile communication (6G). The collaboration has resulted in a wireless transmit and receive system operating between 270 and 320 GHz, with further frequency extensions for potential 6G bands planned.
Although it is not clear yet which technologies 6G will entail, it is already apparent that frequency bandwidths need to be further increased to enable terabit class data rates. Wide contiguous frequency blocks can only be found at sub-THz and THz bands, i.e. in the frequency range above 100 GHz. The utilization of THz frequencies for 6G is estimated to become commercial in the next 8 to 10 years.
The demonstrator setup for 300 GHz consisted of 300 GHz transceiver frontends, the R&S SMW200A vector signal generator, R&S FSW43 signal and spectrum analyzer, and units for synchronization of transmitter and receiver. The joint research targets frequencies above 100 GHz, where the primary focus is on the D-band (150 GHz) and the H-band (300 GHz). Carrier frequencies above 300 GHz are still subject of fundamental research. A first demonstrator resulting from the research collaboration is a system allowing signal generation and signal analysis at 300 GHz with 2 GHz bandwidth.
