Topics and links of the broadcast 12-07-2020 11:00 am (CEST)

CEA-Leti Explores Technology Roadmap For Sixth-Generation Wireless Networks in mmWave Bands

GRENOBLE, France – May 7, 2020 – As countries around the world begin rolling out 5G wireless networks, CEA-Leti is looking ahead to sixth-generation technologies that will surpass the data-transfer capability of 5G. The constraints include physical barriers to sub-THz wave propagation, which can be blocked or strongly attenuated by walls, trees or even windows. Even in a clear propagation path, high-gain antennas are required. To address this challenge, CEA-Leti is designing technologies that are beyond state of the art with high directivity and an electronically steerable antenna. More to read.

Ultra-dense optical data transmission over standard fibre with a single chip source

Micro-combs - optical frequency combs generated by integrated micro-cavity resonators – offer the full potential of their bulk counterparts, but in an integrated footprint. They have enabled breakthroughs in many fields including spectroscopy, microwave photonics, frequency synthesis, optical ranging, quantum sources, metrology and ultrahigh capacity data transmission. Here, by using a powerful class of micro-comb called soliton crystals, we achieve ultra-high data transmission over 75 km of standard optical fibre using a single integrated chip source. We demonstrate a line rate of 44.2 Terabits s−1 using the telecommunications C-band at 1550 nm with a spectral efficiency of 10.4 bits s−1 Hz−1. Soliton crystals exhibit robust and stable generation and operation as well as a high intrinsic efficiency that, together with an extremely low soliton micro-comb spacing of 48.9 GHz enable the use of a very high coherent data modulation format (64 QAM - quadrature amplitude modulated). This work demonstrates the capability of optical micro-combs to perform in demanding and practical optical communications networks. More to read and an explanation of a soliton crystal micro-comb.

HaiLa Technologies Inc. Raises $5 Million in Seed Financing to Commercialize Low Power IoT Solution

HaiLa’s technology enables the use of existing ambient signals in the air as the carrier to ride its data on. This leads to a drastic decrease in power consumption which would either result in a much-extended battery life of devices, or enable energy harvesting solutions, allowing battery-free IoT devices for certain applications. Furthermore, HaiLa uses a proprietary and patented backscattering technique which allows modulation of digital sensor data on top of ambient signals of different protocols while maintaining the integrity of the signal to the original specific protocol. This ensures compatibility of HaiLa-enabled sensor tags to various existing wireless protocols, resulting in a drastic reduction in deployment costs and risks. More to read.

Wi-Fi 6 is Set to Change the Future of IoT—Here’s Why

Wi-Fi is easily one of the most widespread technologies ever invented, allowing for unprecedented connectivity across a near endless list of devices. With more than 450 million Wi-Fi hotspots expected to be deployed (pay to view) in 2020 and an installed base of more than 13 billion Wi-Fi devices, the technology is a global success story.

Its potential to transform industries is even greater than most realize. Wi-Fi is more than an internet gateway for phones, tablets and computers—it can be used to connect virtually every item imaginable. From household appliances to traffic signals and beyond, Wi-Fi is also building a path to the Internet of Things (IoT), which has evolved to allow for more robust applications. IoT is now capable of monitoring equipment to search for indications of failure. It can analyze the temperature of commercial refrigerators to prevent food from spoiling at restaurants and grocery stores. And it can keep a close eye on carbon-monoxide levels to ensure we aren’t at risk for CO poisoning. More to read.

Early Design Feedback: Using Tracealyzer to evaluate design decisions

In a dynamic radio network, input signals can change their combination of carriers within an instant, causing the resulting IMD products to also change. Thus, it is important that the applied distortion correction is updated for the combination of carriers at each instant. If the necessary correction has already been calculated for this combination of carriers, then we can retrieve the correction immediately instead of recalculating. So far this occurs with a minimal but acceptable delay.

Hence there are two operations we are concerned with in the case of having a particular distortion correction already saved: 1) measuring a change in the signal carrier combination, and 2) applying the corresponding distortion correction. This will determine the latency of handling carrier changes. Read more and/or obtain tracealyzer.