The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $3 million to develop a Terahertz Measurement facility to a collaboration between New York University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Florida International University.
According to the NSF, the facility will work as a laboratory to support basic measurements of Terahertz components and properties between 75 GHz and 500 GHz, such as devices, circuits, materials, and radio propagation channels.
The grant will support three areas:
- Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) measurements,
- Radio propagation and channel modelling and
- Metrology and calibration.
Even though the facility is a collaboration between the four universities, institutions will be allowed to borrow Terahertz components to conduct their own remote field experiments in communications. Among equipment vendors are Keysight, Virginia Diodes, and FormFactor.
“The winning project will allow NYU Wireless to purchase over $2.5 million in cutting-edge equipment, which will support radio propagation and channel modelling for 6G, 7G and beyond, as well as RFIC Chip and on-chip antenna measurement capabilities up to 500 GHz,” Professor Ted Rappaport, founder of the NYU Wireless, which leads the project, wrote in a statement.
Another goal of the facility will be setting up events on Terahertz and wireless propagation for students from kindergarten to high school.
“The creation of new calibration and metrology approaches are vital for accurate and repeatable measurements throughout the US research community in this underexplored range of frequencies,” the grant reads.
The laboratory will maintain a website where all information, contribution, results, and events schedule will be posted. The grant starts next October and runs through September 2026.
