Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in ultra-wideband photonic-electronic integrated technology for 6G wireless communication, according to Peking University (PKU).

A joint team from PKU and City University of Hong Kong developed an ultra-wideband system that enables high-speed, frequency-tunable wireless transmission, marking a world-first achievement that is expected to significantly boost the reliability and efficiency of future 6G networks.

The team's findings were published online in Nature on Wednesday.

As the next generation of wireless communication, 6G requires fast transmission across diverse frequency bands in varying environments, but traditional electronic hardware is limited by design constraints and struggles to support cross-band operations.

To overcome this challenge, the team spent four years creating an ultra-wideband photonic-electronic integrated system, which supports high-speed transmission between 0.5 GHz and 115 GHz, offering full-spectrum compatibility and flexible tunability. It can switch to secure frequencies in response to interference, improving both reliability and spectral efficiency.

Wang Xingjun, deputy dean of the School of Electronics at PKU, compared the technology to a super-wide highway where electronic signals are vehicles and frequency bands are lanes. Previously, signals were crowded into one or two lanes, but now many lanes are available, allowing signals to switch lanes as needed for smoother communication.

Experiments have shown the system can achieve wireless transmission rates exceeding 100 Gbps, sufficient to stream 1,000 simultaneous 8K ultra-high-definition videos. This performance meets the peak data rate requirements of 6G while maintaining reliability across the entire frequency range.

The team is now working to enhance the system's integration level to develop smarter, more adaptable photonic-electronic modules, with aims to reduce size, weight and power consumption.

Wang noted that with AI algorithms, this system could enable smarter and more flexible networks that can be applied in a variety of complex scenarios, achieving real-time data transmission, precise environmental sensing and automatic interference avoidance, with more secure and efficient communication.

(With input from Xinhua)