A Beyond 100-Gbps Polymer Microwave Fiber Communication Link at D-Band

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems. I, Regular papers Vol. 70; no. 7; pp. 3017 - 3028
• Main Authors: Strombeck, Frida, Yan, Yu, Zirath, Herbert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Baluns; Bandwidths; Bit error rate; D-band; Gain; Germanium; high datarate; I/Q; Metals; Mixers; Optical fiber communication; PMF; Polymers; Quadrature phase shift keying; SiGe; Transistors; Transmission line measurements
• ISSN: 1549-8328; 1558-0806; 1558-0806
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2023.3262725

A D-band (110-170 GHz) ultra high data rate link is presented and characterized. The circuits are realized in a commercial 130 nm silicon germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process. The 3-dB bandwidth for both transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) is between 125 - 165 GHz, resulting in a 40 GHz bandwidth. The communication link has demonstrated transmissions up to 102 Gbps using 8-phase shift keying (PSK) modulation over a one meter long foam-cladded polymer microwave fiber (PMF) with a bit error rate (BER) of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2.1\times 10^{-3} </tex-math></inline-formula>. Using direct quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 56 Gbps was reached with a BER <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">< 10^{-12} </tex-math></inline-formula>. Total chip area for Tx and Rx combined, including pads, is 4.2 mm 2 .