The 29th of January is an important date for 6G-REFERENCE: we are hosting our first webinar, co-organised with FirstTo6G to speak about “Complementary Microelectronics Hardware Concepts” at 11:00 CET.
This webinar brings together leading researchers and innovators to explore how complementary hardware approaches can accelerate the development of future 6G systems, highlighting the goals and early achievements of both Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) projects. The conversation will focus on fully wireless radio units for distributed MIMO, advanced time-modulated array techniques, and 6G-enabling data converters, to conclude with an interactive panel discussion examining synergies and collaboration.
We encourage you to register on EU Survey and join our discussion on next-generation 6G hardware solutions with:
- Renato Negra, Full Professor at RWTH Aachen University (moderator).
- Eric Klumperink, Associate Professor at University of Twente and 6G-REFERENCE Technical Manager.
- Hua Wang, Full Professor and the Chair of Electronics at Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) of ETH Zürich, and Director of Integrated Devices, Electronics and Systems (IDEAS) Group.
- Mohamed Saeed Elsayed, Co-Founder and CTO of InCirT.
- Oner Hanay, Co-Founder and CEO of InCirT.
6G-REFERENCE Selected Among the Top-10 Key Achievements of SNS JU Projects
At the end of 2025, the pioneering work of 6G-REFERENCE on Time-Modulated Array (TMA) technology, led by the Electronics Lab at ETH Zürich, one of our partners, was selected among the Top-10 Key Achievements of the SNS JU for 2025 in the Category 1: ‘Significant Technology Development’.
The recognition highlights the project’s impactful contribution to next-generation wireless systems and its strong technological and scientific momentum within Europe’s 6G roadmap. It was awarded among 188 submissions across 63 SNS projects.
This distinction was officially unveiled by SNS JU in its 2025 Top-10 Key Achievements announcement, and it was further showcased in the webinar “From Research to Impact: Exploring the Top-10 Key Achievements of SNS JU Projects” on the 3rd of December 2025, where Professor Hua Wang from ETH Zürich presented the team’s work.
“Concurrent multi-beam MIMO arrays are a promising candidate to enhance next-generation wireless communication and sensing capabilities. However, most existing multi-beam MIMO array architectures require complex and expensive hardware. The time modulated array, which our ETH Zürich team is exploring, provides a completely different and non-conventional approach. It enables concurrent multi-beam MIMOs with much lower hardware overhead, achieving more functionalities with less complexity. The 6G-REFERENCE project is a wonderful research and education opportunity at the cross-road of electronics, electromagnetics, signal processing, and machine learning. We are also grateful to the visionary project leadership from SNS JU, CTTC, and the University of Twente.” – Hua Wang, Professor at ETH Zürich and 6G-REFERENCE partner
DISCOVER MORE ABOUT OUR TMA RESEARCH AND THE WEBINAR IN THIS ARTICLE!
Our project research and integrated demonstrations are progressing well thanks to our regular meetings, held not only online but also in person, as in our most recent meeting in the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) on the 21st and 22nd of October 2025, organised by Yi Wang, Professor of Microwave Engineering.
The 6G-REFERENCE Interview Series: Meet the PhD Researchers from the University of Twente!
In our last newsflash published in July 2025, we shared with you the interview series to meet our partners, and now it is the time to meet our PhD and Doctoral researchers from the Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Group at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), one of the 6G-REFERENCE partners.
Contributing with their cutting-edge work to the project, their mission is to push technological boundaries, help design the next-generation Radio Frequency (RF) and analogue systems, and advance what 6G will look like in practice.
We spoke with Robin Lohuis, Erwin Hardeveld, Twan Birnie, and Viswesh Ramkumar about their roles and research within 6G-REFERENCE, how being part of our project is shaping their academic paths, and the impact of the 6G-REFERENCE innovations on our society.
“6G-REFERENCE is all about pushing boundaries so that society can enjoy faster, more connected, and better-performing services.” – Viswesh Ramkumar, Doctoral student at the University of Twente
Recent Dissemination Activities of 6G-REFERENCE: Our Past Events
Over the past months, 6G-REFERENCE has maintained a strong presence across key international scientific and industrial events. The project was presented in Vienna (Austria) at the Europe-Korea Conference on Science and Technology 2025 in August 2025, where our coordinator Ignacio Llamas, Senior Researcher at Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), explained our vision and progress to a global audience.
In September 2025, our research contributions were further showcased in a workshop organised by CTTC at URSI 2025 in Tarragona (Spain), XL Simposio Nacional de la Unión Científica Internacional de Radio (XL National Symposium of the International Union of Radio Science), with a focus on integrated sensing and communications, and at the European Microwave Week 2025 in Utrecht (The Netherlands), where our partners ETH Zürich, University of Birmingham and CTTC presented pioneering work through their scientific papers across multiple sessions.
Beyond conferences, 6G-REFERENCE actively engaged with the wider 6G community through a joint 6G-IA and 5G-ACIA webinar on ISAC/JCAS, attended by 95 participants. Our Technical Manager, Eric Klumperink, Associate Professor at the University of Twente, introduced the 6G-REFERENCE ISAC scenarios, focusing on a factory hall with fibre access only at the Central/Distributed Unit (CU/DU). Marc Bauduin, Research Engineer at imec, spoke about the 6G-REFERENCE OFDM radar waveform with improved angular resolution, in which the radar waveform is optimised to improve sensitivity, and Stefan Andersson, Manager Radio Frequency Frontend at Ericsson, shared our project’s vision on the future of ISAC/JCAS standardisation and its potential for impact generation.
In October 2025, we also introduced our advanced research on accurate and computationally efficient time-of-arrival (ToA) estimation at the 59th Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers in Pacific Grove (California, USA), reinforcing the project’s growing impact across disciplines.
The Invisible Engines of 6G: Four SNS JU Projects Shaping the Hardware for our Connected Future
When you hear about 6G, you might picture futuristic gadgets and lightning-fast speeds. But the true story of 6G is not just about what you can see. Think about it as a quiet revolution happening at the microscopic level that will turn tomorrow’s networks into living, breathing systems that can sense, think, and act in real time.
At the heart of this transformation is a new generation of hardware: the advanced components that make the magic of 6G possible. Four European projects, iSEE-6G, 6G-SHINE, X-TREME 6G and 6G-REFERENCE are at the forefront of this innovation, each representing a vital piece to the 6G puzzle.
“These four projects exemplify how the SNS program is advancing Europe’s 6G capabilities from the hardware level up. By developing the fundamental components –sensing systems, intelligent surfaces, distributed antennas, and microelectronics– they are creating the building blocks for future networks. Crucially, their innovations are contributing directly to international standardization efforts, ensuring that European technology and values shape the global 6G landscape.” – Oana Radu, Programme Officer at the SNS JU
READ OUR COLLABORATIVE ARTICLE ABOUT 6G HARDWARE!
Upcoming Events: See you around Spain!
In the coming months, the 6G-REFERENCE partners will continue to actively disseminate our project results and engage with the 6G research and innovation community attending several events, all taking place across Spain:
- Mobile World Congress (MWC 2026): 2-5 March, Barcelona.
- IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization (IEEE NEMO 2026): 1-3 June, Valencia.
- EuCNC & 6G Summit (EuCNC & 6G Summit 2026): 2-5 June, Málaga.
Meet you there to collaborate to accelerate 6G innovation and advanced connectivity in Europe!
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This newsletter was originally published on LinkedIn.
