6G Terahertz Showdown: Samsung’s 140 GHz Testbed vs. Qualcomm’s 6G Foundry in the 0.3 THz Race
The June 2021 Samsung-UCSB demonstration achieved 6.2 Gbps real-time throughput at 140 GHz over 15 meters using 2 GHz of bandwidth and a 128-element phased-array. Samsung notes terahertz wideband channels could eventually support Tbps peak speeds and cut air latency to one-tenth of 5G’s. Samsung obtained FCC approval in late 2021 to trial 6G transmissions in the 133–148 GHz band at its Texas lab. Qualcomm’s 6G Foundry is a broad R&D program spanning spectrum, waveforms, AI-native networking, and integrated sensing, not a single device. Qualcomm demonstrated 50–70% capacity gains in legacy FDD bands through waveform evolution and MIMO without changing