A vertical methodology for the design space exploration of graphene-enabled wireless communications

Abstract

Graphene-based antennas (or shortly named, graphennas) are envisaged to be the cornerstone of novel wireless communication systems by virtue of their reduced size, in the micrometer range, and an expected radiation frequency of a few terahertz. Progress in the characterization of graphennas and terahertz propagation indicate that nanoscale phenomena will significantly impact on the performance of such graphene-enabled wireless communication systems. Motivated by this fact and the novelty of the investigations, a methodology for the early-stage exploration of the performance of graphene-enabled wireless links is proposed in this paper. The novelty of this methodology resides in its highly vertical approach, which aims to bridge the wide conceptual gap between nanoscale physics and time-domain physical layer modeling and design. With it, the performance of a graphene-enabled wireless link is evaluated as a function of the chemical potential of graphene, the composition of the propagation medium, and the transmission distance in a simple case scenario.