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Innovation

Plasma antennas to give us wireless connection at gigs per second

Will the next generation Wi-Fi be delivered at the speed of plasma? A new antenna beckons.
Written by Boonsri Dickinson, Contributing Editor

It's annoying when the Wi-Fi connection is slow. But don't blame your kids -- look instead to the nature of traditional antennas. To satisfy our Facebook addiction and mobile TV habits, we tap into directional antennas.

But a different kind of antenna could boost the speed of home Internet -- and perhaps change our Wi-Fi consumption forever.

Enter plasma antennas. New Scientist describes that the antennas "could revolutionize high-spreed wireless communications, miniature radar and even energy weapons." Its ability to beam-form high-frequency radio waves into one stream would help deliver wireless content in a snap. Meet Plasma Silicon Antenna (PSiAN).

Beam-forming antennas will help us keep up with our ever increasing Wi-Fi use in the home. While there are two types of plasma antennas, the solid-state antennas are preferred over semiconductor antennas.

The real benefit of upgrading the Wi-Fi networks is to get them to run faster. Wi-Fi usually can manage 54 megabits of data per second. The fancied Wi-Fig would handle up to 7 gigabits per second. This would mean you could download a TV show in a matter of seconds.

Plasma antennas can be made smaller than traditional antennas. The PSiAN should come to market in a few years. Let's hope so, for the sake of time.

via New Scientist and Popular Science

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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