INESC TEC joins European communications consortium

Innovative ultra-BROadband ubiquitous Wireless communications through terahertz transceivers (iBROW) is the name of a project in which INESC TEC is involved where the goal is to develop new, low-cost, and energy-efficient wireless transmitters capable of supporting the increasing requirements in data transmission. The project started in January 2015 and is being developed by a consortium of 11 partners.

The need for broadband contents and services has been increasing over the last years, and predictions indicate that by 2020 the data transmission rates from wireless systems will surpass several dozens of gigabits per second. The technologies used today cannot support these needs, and for that reason it is necessary to develop new and efficient technological platforms to enable an ultrafast transmission of data using fibre optics.

Led by the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, this project brings together universities, institutes and companies from the UK, France, Germany and Portugal, which will explore the potential of resonant-tunnelling-diode, or RTD, to create wireless ultra-broadband communications.

Other than the University of Glasgow and INESC TEC, represented by the Centre for Telecommunications and Multimedia (CTM), the consortium also includes the University of Algarve, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Vivid Components Ltd, Alcatel-Lucent Deutschland AG, Optocap Ltd, IQE Silicon Compounds Ltd, III-V Lab, Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd, and the Commissariat a L’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives.

The CTM team involved in the project is composed of Luís Pessoa, Henrique Salgado and Vítor Grade Tavares. iBROW has a budget of four million euros funded by the European Programme H2020.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institutions: FEUP and INESC Porto.