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

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">$&lt; 10^{-12}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Total chip area for Tx and Rx combined, including pads, is 4.2 mm².