Broadband Analog IC Tech for the Win

Faster networks: Multi-Tb/s optical and beyond 100-Gb/s wireless speeds.
Efficient design: Advanced transistors and materials for better performance.
Future-ready: Growing data demand, revolutionizing digital connectivity.

In our rapidly advancing digital era, the development of faster and more robust communication networks has led to huge advancements in analog integrated circuit (IC) technology. Society has an insatiable need for more speed and better reliability.

Until now, meeting the demands for multi-terabit per second (Tb/s) optical networks and beyond 100-gigabit per second (Gb/s) wireless networks has been hampered by the physical limitations of transistor operating speeds and high-frequency losses. But times are changing.

NTT, together with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, has developed advanced analog chips. These include a baseband amplifier IC (a chip that boosts low-frequency signals) with a 200-GHz bandwidth and a power amplifier IC (a chip that increases signal strength) that operates at 300 GHz. NTT's high-speed chip technology, using advanced materials like indium phosphide (InP), has made these chips possible. They use a type of transistor called a heterojunction bipolar transistor, which helps the chips work faster and more efficiently. This potentially solves the previous difficulties that used to limit the speed and efficiency of chips.

Key features of NTT's analog IC technology include using super-fast transistors, clever circuit designs to reduce signal loss, and small but powerful packaging. These features enable extremely fast optical and wireless communications.

By finding a way past the constraints of current network capabilities, NTT and Tokyo Tech's chips support the rapid growth of data demand and the evolution of technologies that rely on high-speed, high-capacity networks. We're getting closer and closer to a digital world without connectivity limitations, which will reshape the way we live, work, and interact with technology.

For further information, please see this link:
https://www.rd.ntt/forum/2023/doc/E04_leaf_e.pdf
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