Next Big Thing – super-fast terahertz Wi-Fi
Scientists have gone and done it again, with the new frontier of wireless data transfer looking to be in the gigabyte per second region
Faster Wi-Fi you say. How’s that then?
Scientists have cracked a high frequency terahertz band for Wi-Fi transmission that will mean speeds 20 times higher than current abilities. The range goes from 300GHz to 3THz which, in English, means these T-rays sit between microwaves and the far-infrared spectrum.
Did you say microwaves? Isn’t that dangerous?
They’re not X-rays so don’t fret. Although they do share the similar ability to penetrate materials just as well, except T-rays deposit less energy meaning less damage caused. And, with data rates of up to 3Gb/s achieved already, Wi-Fi of the future could be the end of data wires once and for all.
What’s the catch?
At the moment they’ve only managed to send the messages up to 10 metres in range, so it’s not a 4G replacement. But for your in-home router that’s plenty, and thanks to a resonant tunneling diode that enhances the signal to the terahertz band, it can be done affordably now too.
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Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief