CST Global shares THz research findings
Terahertz (THz) technology is currently breaking into many major application fields such as wireless, medical, non-destructive materials testing, radar, security, food processing and space. At the recent THz Electronics Workshop at the University of Glasgow, Horacio Cantu, research engineer at CST Global (pictured) and Edward Wasige at the university, shared the research findings of two, wireless-over-fibre projects; iBROW and WiPHi. Both projects are collaborations between CST Global and the University of Glasgow and both are managed by Cantu.
iBROW is an EU-funded, Horizon 2020 project, completing in June 2018. "It has helped establish optimal, wireless, mm-wave carrier frequencies for high speed communications using frequencies between 84GHz and 300GHz. It has also investigated wireless baseband to optical domain conversion at wavelengths of 1270, 1310 and 1550nm. The baseband data-rates investigated were 10Gbps and above," explained Cantu.
WiPHi is a UK government-funded, Innovate UK project, running from January to December 2018. It has an additional commercial partner, Optocap. The WiPHi project is focused on 60GHz wireless transmission and baseband conversion for optical domain networks using RTD-LD (Resonant Tunneling Diode-Laser Diode) drivers, which include DFB lasers made by CST Global. "In this project, we are investigating 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths for indoor communications, using the existing, V-band communications framework. The data-rate possible with the WiPHi technology is around 7Gbps, with low-latency; increased transmission speed; immunity from interference; enhanced security; and a reduction in component count and antenna size," said Cantu.
Eminent academic speakers at the THz Electronics Workshop included Elliott R. Brown from Wright State University, USA; Imran Mehdi from JPL-NASA, USA; Masahiro Asada from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan; and Prof. Tadao Nagatsuma from Osaka University, Japan.
