Test company Tektronix touted its support of an international research team which demonstrated the first transmission of two real-time video signals through a terahertz multiplexer that reached an aggregate data rate of 50 gigabits per second. Tektronix noted that the speed reached in the terahertz transmission test is “some 100x faster than cellular networks.”
The work by Brown University and the Institut d’Electronique de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie (IEMN), CNRS/University of Lille, in France, was published in Nature Communications. The team had previously demonstrated that “the worlds of fiber optics and radio can be bridged using photonic-based THz circuits to achieve high-data rates,” Tektronix said. “However, for any system to be viable, a system for multiplexing and demultiplexing (mux/demux) signals is a fundamental requirement. Using a waveguide system involving two metal plates in parallel, the researchers encoded two high-definition television broadcasts onto terahertz waves of two different frequencies: 264.7 GHz and 322.5 GHz. They then sent both frequencies together into the multiplexer system, with a television receiver set to detect the signals as they emerged from the device. Further experiments show that this system could deliver data rates up to 50 Gb/s with low error rates.”
“The bridging of fiber optics and radio technologies using photonic-based THz circuits to achieve high-data rates is an area of continuous innovation and this is another example of how test and measurement enables innovation,” said Dean Miles, market development manager for Tektronix in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In other test news:
-IEEE’s 802.3 working group has approved new amendments to two new specifications related for ever-faster Ethernet connections: 200G and 400G. The 802.3bs standard amendments relate to Media Access Control parameters, the physical layer and management parameters for 200 gigabit Ethernet and 400G networks.
John D’Ambrosia, chairman of Ethernet Alliance and senior principal engineer for Huawei, said that 802.3bs “represents a transformational moment in the move to next generation of networks. The delivery of 200G and 400G is arriving just in time to meet growing needs for reliable, high-speed connectivity from a diverse array of applications and markets” such as cloud-scale data centers, co-location services and internet exchanges as well as service provider networks. D’Ambrosia added that “the exceptional effort resulting in the completion of this standard is only the start of the industry’s investment in the networks of tomorrow. We’ve laid a firm foundation for 200G and 400G with our early interoperability demonstrations and plugfests, but it’s time to kick things into high gear. The real work of testing and verifying multivendor interoperability begins now.”
-Former Ixia Communications CEO Bethany Mayer has landed at a tech and telecom investment firm after leaving her role as head of Keysight Technologies’ Ixia Group. Siris Capital announced this week that Mayer has joined the company as an executive partner and will be working to help the company identify and validate investment opportunities and oversee its portfolio companies.
“Bethany is an incredibly accomplished, results-oriented leader with a proven track record of growth and operational improvement in both large and small technology companies,” said Frank Baker, co-founder of Siris. “Bethany has been instrumental in helping companies transition to their next phase of innovation and we are confident that she will be a natural fit and invaluable asset to the Siris executive partner team and our portfolio companies.”
During Mayer’s tenure at Ixia, she oversaw the acquisition of the company by Keysight Technologies.
–Rohde & Schwarz now has what it says is the market’s first independently certified eCall test solution. In the European Union, eCall capabilities must be built into every new car as of April 1, 2018: in an accident, an eCall module must support automatic data transmission to 112, Europe’s equivalent of the U.S. 911 system. Test house Cetecom has certified Rohde & Schwarz’s eCall test solution, which can be used to simulate a public safety answering point as part of eCall validation.
–MIPI Alliance has updated its MIPI Narrow Interface for Debug and Test specification so that it can be applied to USB Type-C connectors. Type-C connectors have become more popular in devices in the past two years, due to enabling faster data transfer speeds and their reversibility.
-The White Space Alliance, which promotes the use of white space spectrum, said recently that it has expanded the testing format for its Wi-FAR network certification. Wi-FAR is a derivative of 802.22 networks developed by the WSA for broadband services such as last-mile internet service at distances up to 30 kilometers from a site, including both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight.
-Semiconductor test and burn-in company Aehr Test Systems reported that it saw 88% year-over-year revenue growth in its fiscal second quarter, earning revenues of $7.9 million. Profit for the quarter came in at $60,000, compared to a loss of $1.5 million in the prior year’s second quarter. Aehr also said that it had won a new order totaling more than $2 million order for testing and burn-in of silicon photonics devices for data communications.
-Tektronix
