Thursday, March 21, 2013

Carbon copy. Near-field transfers of up to one terabit per second using graphene antennas. Bluetooth, eat your heart out.

Bluetooth 3: up to 24 Mbit/s.
"Graphene transfer" beta: up to 100 terabits/s.


MIT Technology Review Story >>

Not that he is still looking for career advice, but if I were to give Ben Braddock, the protagonist in the film "The Graduate," a one-word lecture on what to do with his life, it would be "graphene." Yes, graphene. Think about it at least.

So please run this story by your nanotech materials division. What!? Your company doesn't have a nanotechology materials unit? Well, a nonotech group then? A small team? An in-house expert? A hobbyist? No? Then you'd better get one.

So, researchers at Georgia Tech are working on a method of making wireless transfers of up to one terabit per second between devices by using graphene antennas. At such speeds, in a few seconds, you could shoot over a few high-definition movies to your friend and then in return, borrow a library of music. The range of such transfers is only up to a meter (a yard) or so. But get this: at shorter ranges, much faster transfers could be possible, say around 100 terabits per second. And remember how excited we were about Bluetooth. And then sharing pics via NFC coupling?

While it has its limitations and its problems, graphene is looking like an amazing enabler in so many ways. This one-atom-thick layer of carbon rolled up into "nanotubes" can take on many different roles depending upon the angle of the bond and the diameter of the roll. Graphene is super light, super strong, and simply super.

I realize this is nothing you will find in the next iPhone or Lumia (but please prove me wrong Apple or Nokia), but the goal of my blog is to provide exposure for longer-term technology trends and industry shifts. And when it literally comes to shaping the future, it's likely that nanotech-related developments will be in the center. Someday we will really see interesting new device form factors, tiny embedded computers, and super tough devices thanks to advancements in nanotechnology.

Huge advancements are coming in the tiniest of ways. Graphene, the plastics of the new century.

"21st Century story update:
four words of career advice: nanotechnology-related material sciences."



Carbon copy: Researchers are working on using atoms of carbon for super transfers:







For those looking to network with Chinese mobile players and understand the market: the kind producers of the Global Mobile Internet Conference 2013 and the extended "G-Trip" contacted me to share a 25% discount code with any readers who might wish to attend. You can register your attendance at http://beijing.thegmic.com/register/ and paste in the following code into the "discount code" section: GMIC-VQ9596MT

GWIC 2013. Be there. And see see Tiananmen Square.



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