Samsung Electronics, UCSB Demonstrate 6G Terahertz Wireless Communication Prototype

Samsung Electronics researchers test-operate the Thz proof-of-concept system at the Samsung Research America lab. (Photo: Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics announced on June 16 that the company demonstrated the 6G Terahertz (THz) wireless communication prototype in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

At the recent workshop on Terahertz communications at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2021), researchers from Samsung Research, Samsung Research America, and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) introduced the potential impact that THz could have on next-generation 6G technology, demonstrating an end-to-end 140GHz wireless link using a fully digital beamforming solution.

“Samsung has been at the forefront of technological innovation and standardization of 5G and 6G. As we shared in our 6G vision white paper last year, we believe new spectrum opportunities at the THz spectrum will become a driving force of 6G technology. This demonstration can be a major milestone in exploring the feasibility of using the THz spectrum for 6G wireless communications,” said Senior Vice President Choi Sung-hyun, an IEEE Fellow and Head of the Advanced Communication Research Center at Samsung Research.

The THz band in¬cludes an enormous amount of available spectrum, which will enable wideband channels with tens of GHz-wide bandwidth.

This could potentially provide a means to meet the 6G requirement of terabits per second data rate. The peak data rate can be 50 times faster than 5G and the over-the-air latency could potentially be reduced to one-tenth.

These improvements will enable 6G hyper-connectivity services and ultimate multimedia experience, such as extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, etc.

The end-to-end prototype system the researchers demonstrated consists of a 16-channel phased array transmitter and receiver modules, driven by CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) RFICs (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits), and a baseband unit to process signals with 2GHz bandwidth and fast adaptive beamforming.

In the over-the-air test, the prototype system achieved real-time throughput of 6.2 Gbps over a 15-meter distance with adaptive beam steering capability at the Terahertz frequency.

Samsung and UCSB researchers have been working closely on the THz phased array module development, which is a key to the success of the test. The module requires sophisticated packaging technology to allow research test chips to be used in a large-scale array module.

The precise digital beamforming calibration algorithm, developed by Samsung, enables these modules to achieve high beamforming gain.

Samsung’s most versatile image sensor offers 50Mp options for both front and rear-facing cameras

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, introduced on June 10 the industry’s first 0.64-micrometer (μm)-pixel image sensor, the 50-megapixel (Mp) Samsung ISOCELL JN1.

Equipped with the latest pixel technologies such as enhanced ISOCELL 2.0, Smart-ISO and Double Super PDAF, the JN1 can capture more vivid images on the industry’s smallest 50Mp mobile sensor.

“Samsung’s advanced pixel technologies have once again pushed boundaries with the utmost precision to develop an image sensor with the industry’s smallest pixel size, yet with powerful performance.

The new ISOCELL JN1 at 0.64μm will be able to equip tomorrow’s sleekest smartphones with ultra-high resolution mobile photographs,” said Chang Duck-hyun, executive vice president of the sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “As we drive our commitment to innovation in pixel technologies, we will continue to bring a wide range of mobile image sensor offerings to the market.”

A new addition to Samsung’s high-resolution image sensor lineup, the JN1 employs ISOCELL 2.0 technology with added enhancements that improve light sensitivity by around 16-percent.

For low-light environments, the sensor utilizes Samsung’s four-to-one pixel binning technology, Tetrapixel, which merges four adjacent 0.64μm-pixels into one big 1.28μm-pixel to quadruple light sensitivity for brighter 12.5Mp photographs.

With such advanced technologies all embedded in a small 1/2.76-inch optical format, the ISOCELL JN1 is the most versatile image sensor yet from Samsung.

Through close collaboration with ecosystem partners, the JN1 is compatible with existing 1/2.8-inch products, allowing the sensor to be used for front-facing, ultra-wide or telephoto cameras, in addition to standard wide camera options.