NTT: NTT Creates Prototype Baseband Booster Chip For 2Tbps etworks

NTT has created a prototype device that might boost data center and submarine cable connection rates. A crucial step toward 6G, the gadget can in-lab enhance a 100 Gigahertz (GHz) electrical signal. Although the commercial availability of the ultra-compact baseband amplifier IC module is years away, NTT anticipates using the chip in the next all-photonics networks. According to NTT, its Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) would need a baseband amplifier IC module to enhance the signals and transmission rates of more than two terabits per second. 

The chip, according to the firm, will also be crucial for 6G because that technology needs distortion-free ultra-broadband signal amplification. It needed massive prototype modules with separate direct current (DC) block pieces, but NTT had previously proven an experimental optical transmission faster than two terabits per second. The DC block function is integrated into the amplifier IC component of the new chip using NTT's InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (InP HBT) technology, which substitutes indium phosphide for silicon. Also, the company said that because NTT's product is ultra-compact with a built-in DC block functionality, it can be linked directly to a variety of devices, making it a practical module.