Terahertz Channel Measurement and Characterization on a Desktop from 75 to 400 GHz

The emerging technology terahertz (THz) communication is envisioned to provide high-data-rate wireless links. The wide swath of the unused and unexplored spectrum makes it a significant candidate for the sixth-generation mobile communications (6G). In this paper, a series of channel measurements are conducted on an optical table to characterize the wireless channel on a desktop, which is an important use case for THz communications. The measured frequency range is from 75 GHz to 400 GHz, which has covered the main band planed for 6G within THz band. Eight frequency bands with ultrawide bandwidth are measured dividually in order to explore how the channel characteristics change along with frequency. By comparison of the power delay profiles (PDPs) between measurements and ray-tracing (RT) simulations, the measured multipaths can be physically interpreted. Moreover, with the aid of this self-developed RT simulator, electromagnetic (EM) property of the painted metal (which is the relevant material generating multi-order reflected paths in the measurements) is extracted, finding that the imaginary part of the relative permittivity is considerably small compared to the perfect conductor because of the painting. Last but not least, the key channel parameters, in terms of root-mean-square (RMS) delay spread and Ricain K-factor, are analyzed and modeled with frequency. In the future, with the help of RT simulations, the angular characteristics will be supplemented to complete the three-dimensional (3D) channel data towards a thorough understanding of channel characteristics for THz communications in the 6G era.