An Introduction to Japanese R&D projects on 300-GHz band Wireless Communications

Due to the growing demand that big-size data can be easily transmitted by radio communication, the expectation of radio communication using terahertz waves as a new frequency band following conventional microwave and millimeter wave is increasing. As a feature of the terahertz wave, it is possible to use the wide frequency bandwidth which has never been used before. In recent years, research and development of 300 GHz band by electronic devices has been activated by projects funded by Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), and the development of devices for 300 GHz communications were carried out, such as monolithic integrated circuits made by indium phosphide (InP), RF front-end by silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits and the traveling wave tube amplifier for 300 GHz. This paper introduces these trends.