Cambridge Team Achieves Record 362 Gbps with New Chip-Scale System
Image credit to LiFi Research and Development Centre (LRDC)
By LiFi Tech News Team
A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge’s LiFi Research and Development Centre (LRDC) has unveiled a new chip-scale optical wireless system. This fully integrated platform sets a new benchmark for the industry, demonstrating a record aggregate data rate of 362.71 Gbps while consuming nearly half the energy of state-of-the-art WiFi.
The Innovation: Chip-Scale Beam Shaping
The research, detailed in Advanced Photonics Nexus, presents a scalable, chip-based system that integrates a custom-fabricated 5×5 array of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with tailored beam-shaping micro-optics.
Unlike previous bulkier demonstrations, this system addresses the "swamp" of data demand with a compact, efficient design. The team, including researchers from Integrated Compound Semiconductors Ltd, Compound Semiconductor Centre Ltd, and the University of Manchester, developed a solution that unifies high-speed modulation, energy efficiency, and precise beam control on a single platform.
Breaking Records: Speed and Efficiency
The headline figure is the staggering throughput. Using spectrally efficient Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM), the system achieved an aggregate data rate of 362.71 Gbps. To put this in perspective, this rate was achieved despite the system being constrained by the 1.4 GHz bandwidth of a commercial receiver, suggesting that the theoretical limits of the VCSEL array itself are even higher (potentially over 430 Gbps).
Crucially, this speed does not come at the cost of power. The system’s energy consumption was measured at approximately 1.4 nanojoules per bit (nJ/bit). When benchmarked against modern IEEE 802.11ax/ac (WiFi 6) systems operating under similar high-throughput conditions, the optical transmitter proved to be 1.8 to 1.9 times more energy-efficient.
Precise Coverage for Multi-User Networks
One of the critical challenges in OWC is providing uniform coverage. The researchers tackled this by designing a compact multi-element optical system that converts the native output of the lasers into a uniform grid of collimated beams.
The result is a "structured, multi-user indoor coverage" zone. The system demonstrated over 90% spatial uniformity at a distance of 2 meters, creating a 0.65m × 0.65m illumination area that allows for consistent connectivity. This beam-shaping capability is essential for practical deployments, ensuring that users can move within a room without losing the high-speed connection.
The Future of 6G and Beyond
This development is more than just a speed record; it is a foundational architecture for the next generation of wireless networks. The paper notes that emerging applications like holographic communication and immersive virtual environments require exactly this combination of ultra-high data rates and low power consumption.
"To our knowledge, this is the first fully integrated platform to simultaneously achieve such high data throughput, low energy consumption, and beam shaping on a chip-compatible scale," the authors state.
By proving that dense VCSEL arrays can be effectively used for spatial multiplexing without prohibitive interference, this research opens the door for programmable, high-capacity, and energy-conscious photonic wireless systems, a key pillar for the future of 6G connectivity.
