We are proud to announce that one of the this year's winners of the SICK Science Award is Dr. Tobias Harter, who has been awarded with the Best Dissertation 2019.

About the Winner:
Dr. Tobias Harter's dissertation "Wireless Terahertz Communications: Optoelectronic Devices and Signal Processing",  Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Advisor: Prof. C. Koos, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics.

Short Abstract:

Nowadays, wireless networks are operated in the lower gigahertz range and are therefore limited in their bandwidth. Data transmission at carrier frequencies in Teraherzt (THz) range between 0.1 THz and 1 THz (T-waves) has the potential to overcome the current limitations of wireless networks. The work addresses various approaches to enhance the performance of T-wave systems. It discusses novel signal processing concepts, investigates novel optoelectronic devices for T-wave transmitters and receivers and validates the viability of the proposed systems by data transmission experiments. These have shown that the developed approaches significantly increase the performance of wireless networks and can also be transferred to other areas of application, such as THz spectroscopy.

Source: https://www.kcist.kit.edu/1026.php

Our research in the field of photonic-electronic signal processing has been selected as one of ten winners in the category “Engineering and Technology” at the 2020 Falling Walls Conference. Falling Walls presented breakthroughs in science and research at the "World Science Summit" of Falling Walls and the Berlin Science Week from November 1 to 10, 2020. The research was highlighted during the virtual Winners Session on November 8, 2020.  

September 2020: Researchers from IPQ/IMT have developed a novel concept for low-cost terahertz receivers that consist of a single diode in combination with a dedicated signal processing technique. In a proof-of-concept experiment, the team demonstrated transmission at a data rate of 115 Gbit/s and a carrier frequency of 0.3 THz over a distance of 110 meters. This demonstration is a first step towards future wireless networks of the 6th generation (6G) that will consist of a multitude of small radio cells that need to be connected by broadband communication links. In this context, wireless transmission at THz frequencies represents a particularly attractive and flexible solution. The results are reported in Nature Photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-020-0675-0).

Original publication: Nature Photonics

KIT press release: German, English