Hualiang Zhang
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, MA·Engineering
Wireless networks are running out of room at the frequencies they use today, and the terahertz (THz) band, frequencies above 100 GHz, offers far more capacity. The catch is that THz signals lose energy quickly, so they must be aimed precisely as tightly focused beams that can be steered in real time.
- Fields
Engineering
Physics
Materials Science
- Topics
terahertz
THz
reflectarray
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2029
What they work on
- Design and fabricate photonically driven THz reflectarray unit cells built from hybrid gold–germanium mesa-array semiconductor structures whose reflection phase changes under light.
- Use a closely coupled micro-LED array projecting computer-generated light patterns to achieve pseudo-continuous 360-degree phase control of each unit cell, with no electrical bias wires.
- Synthesize arbitrary two-dimensional phase profiles in real time to steer, bend and curve reflected THz beams, and to support multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) operation.
- Analyze and simulate system- and network-level performance, and demonstrate prototype adaptive high-speed THz wireless links.
More about the research
Building large antennas that do this has been held back by signal losses and by the wiring needed to control thousands of tiny elements.
Why it matters
Steerable THz antennas could support faster and more reliable wireless networks for smart cities and for better connectivity in rural and underserved areas. The same light-controlled beam-forming surfaces could also provide new tools for medical imaging, security screening, and chemical and biological sensing, where THz waves are useful.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yasaman Ghasempour
Princeton University, NJ·Engineering·Early-career
Steer narrow terahertz beams electronically using a new multi-slit antenna, in which the beam's angle depends on the signal frequency and the slit geometry, to overcome the high signal loss at frequencies above 100 GHz.
Robert Heath
University of California-San Diego, CA·Engineering
Build MIMO input-output models of dynamic metasurface antennas (low-power panels of tunable elements) that capture waveguide loss, coupling between elements and reconfiguration effects, using existing circuit and antenna models.
Subhanshu Gupta
Washington State University, WA·Engineering
Use the frequency-dependent beams of true-time-delay arrays to cut beam-training overhead, and design a low-latency protocol that trains beams and estimates interference at the same time in dense millimeter-wave networks.
The school
University of Massachusetts-Lowell: 7 labs on PI Pages, $121M a year on research, 149 research doctorates a year.
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