- The transceiver achieves 15 GB/s, vastly surpassing the bandwidth of existing consumer wireless systems
- Analog signal processing drastically reduces energy consumption while maintaining extreme data rates
- Three synchronized sub-transmitters replace conventional DACs, consuming only 230 milliwatts
A new wireless transceiver has achieved data rates that exceed those of current consumer wireless systems under practical operating conditions.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have reported a wireless transceiver operating in the 140GHz range that can move data at roughly 120Gbps.
That transfer rate translates to about 15GB/s, far exceeding current consumer wireless limits.
Pushing data speeds beyond traditional limits
Wi-Fi 7 is theoretically limited to about 3.75GB/s (30Gbps), while 5G mmWave reaches roughly 0.625GB/s (5Gbps).
This places the new transceiver’s 15GB/s (120Gbps) performance at about 300% higher than Wi-Fi 7 and roughly 2300% higher than 5G mmWave.
A central issue addressed by the researchers is the heavy power demand associated with digital-to-analog converters used in traditional transmitters.
At extremely high frequencies, these components become complex, inefficient, and hard to scale for mobile devices.
The team describes this limitation as a DAC bottleneck that constrains further speed increases.
Their alternative design replaces a single high-speed converter with three synchronized sub-transmitters that work together while consuming only 230mW.
A digital converter capable of similar throughput would draw several watts, which makes it impractical for battery-powered hardware.
If traditional methods were used, the battery life of next-generation devices could drop to minutes.
Instead of pushing more computation into digital circuitry, the system performs key signal operations in the analog domain.
This approach reduces energy use while still supporting very high data rates. The future may favor analog methods, at least in the sense that analog computation offers a practical solution.
This transceiver is designed as a single integrated chip rather than a collection of discrete components.
The chip is fabricated on silicon using a 22nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator process, avoiding the manufacturing complexity associated with leading-edge nodes.
This approach is simpler than the 2nm or 18A nodes used by TSMC and Samsung.
It lowers fabrication difficulty and may ease large-scale production compared to experimental technologies tied to the smallest geometries.
The reported speeds approach those of fiber links commonly deployed in data centers, opening the possibility of short-range wireless replacements for extensive cabling.
Reduced wiring could lower installation costs and improve flexibility in tightly packed server environments.
However, physics still imposes limits. Current 5G millimeter wave systems, which can reach up to 71GHz, already suffer from short transmission ranges of about 300 meters.
Operation at even higher frequencies is likely to shrink coverage further, so any widespread deployment would require dense infrastructure and careful planning.
This demonstration shows what is technically achievable, but practical adoption will depend on range extension, interference management, and integration into existing networks.
Via Tom’s Hardware
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