South Korea's LG Electronics has claimed a milestone in THz territory.

In a test carried out in Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) the supplier said it achieved outdoor wireless data transmission distances of up to 320 meters in the 155GHz–175GHz frequency range (THz spectrum is generally defined as anything between 100GHz and 10THz).

"We are one step closer to realizing 6G speeds of 1 Tbit/s in both indoor and outdoor urban areas," said LG Electronics' CTO Dr. Kim Byoung-hoon.

Figure 1: LG claims the industry is 'one step closer' to realizing 6G speeds of 1 Tbit/s in both indoor and outdoor urban areas.
(Source: Kirill Ivanov/Alamy Stock Photo)

LG added that the successful demo was a 'significant step" towards commercializing 6G at THz, since reference cell coverage of basestations is around 250 meters for urban macro cells.

Just over a year ago LG proved it could transfer what it calls "6G THz" data over a distance of 100 meters outdoors – again, tapping into facilities and expertise at Fraunhofer HHI – but tech advances since then have evidently translated into a massive improvement in performance.

Under the THz hood

To compensate for high signal attenuation found in the 155GHz–175GHz frequency range, LG said it co-developed – in partnership with Fraunhofer HHI and Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics – a power amplifier capable of increasing transmission strength, as well as a receiver low-noise amplifier that improves incoming signal quality.

The latest demo used a multi-channel power amplifier with an output of more than 20dBm and an increase of over 5dBm compared with last year's trial. Also utilized was a receiver low-noise amplifier that minimizes noise generation for reception signal.

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These new technologies, said LG, have been integrated into its latest module design and apparently done in such a way to make future IC (integrated circuit) fabrication easier, smoothing the path towards commercialization.

LG plans to announce the full results of its latest 6G comms test and present an overview of the technology's development at the upcoming 6G Grand Summit, set to take place at the LG Science Park in Seoul on September 23.

The company is hosting the event in collaboration with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS).

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— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading