Opvolger Wi-Fi: Wi-Gig (1-7 gigabit per seconde) over 2 jaar mogelijk.

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Een door een Brits bedrijf ontwikkelde plasma-antenne is zo klein dat het ding in een mobiele telefoon kan worden ingebouwd.

Plasma Silicon Antenna, or PSiAN, relies on existing low-cost manufacturing techniques developed for silicon chips. It has been developed by Plasma Antennas of Winchester, UK.
PSiAN consists of thousands of diodes on a silicon chip. When activated, each diode generates a cloud of electrons - the plasma - about 0.1 millimetres across. At a high enough electron density, each cloud reflects high-frequency radio waves like a mirror. By selectively activating diodes, the shape of the reflecting area can be changed to focus and steer a beam of radio waves. This "beam-forming" capability makes the antennas crucial to ultrafast wireless applications, because they can focus a stream of high-frequency radio waves that would quickly dissipate using normal antennas. [...]
There are two types of plasma antenna: semiconductor or solid-state antennas, such as PSiAN, and gas antennas. Both could fit the bill, but solid-state antennas are favoured as they are more compact and have no moving parts.
That makes them attractive for use in a new generation of ultrafast Wi-Fi, known as Wi-Gig. Existing Wi-Fi tops out at 54 megabits of data per second, whereas the Wi-Gig standard is expected to go up to between 1 and 7 gigabits per second - fast enough to download a television programme in seconds. Wi-Gig requires higher radio wave frequencies, though: 60 gigahertz rather than the 2.4 GHz used by Wi-Fi. Signals at these frequencies disperse rapidly unless they are tightly focused, which is where PSiAN comes in.

Bron: New Scientist.

VrGr,

Bart J.