(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.)
A new chip designed for wireless communications is capable of working in bad weather to deliver secure and reliable communications.
The chip was designed by a team of researchers from The University of Texas, Austin (UT). The team published their work in an article titled ‘Optical phased array beam steering in the mid-infrared on an InP-based platform’ in journal Optica in November.
The chip operates in mid-infrared area of the light spectrum that allows signal to pass through rain, clouds and other weather conditions to reach its destination without losing much of the light, an UT release explained.
It re-directs light in the direction of a specific target using beam steering technique, to transmit the signal more accurately than other methods, reducing interference and saving power, it added.
Also Read | Alphabet's Internet-providing balloons flew a record 312 days
“Low light loss means signal can travel further, and through the earth's atmosphere, with better integrity and less power consumption,” Ray Chen, Professor at UT and project leader, said.
The chip could aid military communications in challenging areas, improve the ability of self-driving cars to see the environment around them and speed up wireless data for potential 6G networks, the UT release noted.
According to the team, the device has much wider angles for steering light which increases the range by about 30 degrees compared to other options, and as a result, it does not require any moving parts as they are susceptible to damage.
Also Read | SpaceX launches its 13th Starlink mission. What does the company plan to achieve?
The researchers are planning to field-test the device to refine it for applications in free-space optical communications – a technology that allows wireless data to travel through air using light, and that can be used to increase internet speed.
They are also working on embedding artificial intelligence into the device for environmental sensing to pick up thing such as gas leaks and smoke stack emissions.
