Wave Propagation and Channel Modeling in Chip-Scale Wireless Communications: A Survey From Millimeter-Wave to Terahertz and Optics

Abstract

The miniaturization of transceivers and antennas is enabling the development of Wireless Networks-on-Chip (WNoC), in which chip-scale communication is utilized to increase the computing performance of multi-core/multi-chip architectures. Although the potential benefits of the WNoC paradigm have been studied in depth, its practicality remains unclear due to the lack of a proper characterization of the wireless channel at the chip scale and across the spectrum, among others. In this paper, the state of the art in wave propagation and channel modeling for chip-scale communication is surveyed. First, the peculiarities of WNoC, including the design drivers, architecture, environment, and on-chip electromagnetics are reviewed. After a brief description of the different methods to characterize wave propagation at chipscales, a comprehensive discussion covering the different works at millimeter-wave (mmWave), Terahertz (THz) and optical frequencies is provided. Finally, the major challenges in the characterization of the WNoC channel and potential solutions to address them are discussed, providing a roadmap for the foundations of practical WNoCs.

On the Cooperative Relaying Strategies for Multi-Core Wireless Network-on-Chip

“…. , N g , and thus it can be deduced L (a) ij ≥ 1 (see (3)). This means, the MAA in addition to the DPL constitute the total attenuation in the WiNoC, while the conventional channel model is generally assumed over the pure air with no MAA.…”

“…With growing and emerging multimedia applications which require a considerable enhancement of computation and interactive functionality, wire-based interconnects between cores in a Network-on-Chip (NoC) have been shown to be insufficient to meet the critical requirements of high performance, scalability and low latency, especially in this technological era of ever increasing number of cores [1], [2]. In order to address these issues, various alternative fabrics and architectures for NoCs have been investigated, such as photonic NoC [3], [4], nanophotonic NoC [5], three-dimensional NoC (3D NoC) [6]- [8] and Wireless NoC (WiNoC) [9]- [13]. Specifically, the WiNoC with its flexibility and scalability over the wireless medium is shown to considerably reduce the propagation delay of intra-chip communications.…”

6G and Beyond: The Future of Wireless Communications Systems

“…However, major progress in the domains of transceiver and antenna design has seen THz links become a promising option for realizing indoor communications networks. More recently, there has been significant progress on realizing wireless network on chip (WNoC) using THz bands [17].…”

Toward Dynamically Adapting Wireless Intra-Chip Channels to Traffic Needs with a Programmable Metasurface

“…Each meta-atom can be programmed individually into different states and each state corresponds to a distinct scattering response, as detailed in Section 3. The wave field inside an enclosure like the chip package is the superposition of the field radiated by the source and all the reflections off the material interfaces and boundaries (secondary sources) [1,23]. If the geometry of the enclosure is irregular, the wave field will be speckle-like.…”