InP integrated circuit design for future THz communication systems

Wireless communication is ubiquitous in our life. Today, the 5G standard is being deployed, featuring higher data rates and lower latencies than its predecessor 4G. Imec has already started research for 6G. 6G will feature even higher data rates than 5G, up to 100 Gbit/s and wireless communication with a latency well below 1 millisecond. This will serve applications such as high-resolution augmented reality or virtual reality, 3D holographic communication, ...

To enable this, a huge bandwidth is needed – much more than what 5G will need. Such bandwidth is available above 100 GHz. Imec is already developing electronics for the D-band, which is between 110 GHz and 170 GHz. As the hunger for even higher data rates will not be satisfied, there will be a need to reach out to even higher carrier frequencies.  after the introduction, even higher bandwidths will be needed.

Recently, IEEE released the IEEE 802.15.3d standard for wireless communication in the frequency band from 275 GHz to 325 GHz. The large bandwidths available at these frequencies would enable Tbps wireless communication. In this research, our vision is to use indium-phosphide (InP) technology in combination with CMOS to combine the best of both worlds. Of course, a highly integrated and energy efficient topology is required which creates a need to investigate circuits and architectures in InP at these very high frequencies.