A plastic waveguide receiver in 40nm CMOS with on-chip bondwire antenna

Abstract

This paper presents the design and measurements of a 40 nm CMOS BPSK and multilevel ASK receiver for wired connections through a plastic waveguide, operating at 87 GHz. In a measurement setup containing the receiver chip with bondwire dipole antenna and a long piece of polypropylene waveguide with a rectangular cross-section of 2.2 mm by 0.9 mm, a maximum datarate of 9 Gbit/s over a distance of 60 cm and 2.5 Gbit/s over a distance of 9 m is measured, both with a bit error rate of less than 10 −12 and a PRBS length of 2 7 − 1. The chip consumes 50 mW of DC power from a 0.9 V supply. The total chip area is 2.1 mm 2 , of which 52 % is occupied by the antenna and reflector.

A Multi-Gigabit CPFSK Polymer Microwave Fiber Communication Link in 40 nm CMOS

“…These bandwidths can be exploited to increase the bit rate of data communication links. In literature, mm-Wave communication links operating at 100 GHz or higher exist [1]- [9], all of them using wireless transmission. The achieved communication distances are limited because of the large free-space path loss (FSPL) at these frequencies.…”

“…A cheaper and more power efficient approach, used in this paper, is to use a polymer microwave fiber (PMF) as the transmission channel for mm-Wave data communication. Such fiber can act as a low-loss channel for mm-Wave radio signals [1], [9]- [13], creating an alternative technology, complementary to optical and copper wireline. For link distances up to 10 meters, a PMF link appears to be a valuable alternative which can reach high data rates with a competitive link energy efficiency.…”

A 90-GHz receiver in 40-nm CMOS for plastic waveguide links

“…Plastic waveguides on the other hand provide galvanic separation and their weight is much lower, a property that is especially important in automotive applications. The receiver chip presented in this paper was published in [3]. This paper goes into more detail on the dielectric waveguide and the design of the receiver circuit.…”

Plastic straw: future of high-speed signaling

“…However, due to its high rigidity, a hollow metal pipe creating total reflection at the metal boundaries is expensive and inconvenient. In contrast, a dielectric waveguide, although flexible and easy to use 14 , it has not been considered as an alternative for the conductor based interconnects due to 1) poor manufacturability 15 16 and 2) low power efficiency 17 caused by limited bandwidth-to-centre frequency ratio and 3) intrinsic energy loss due to the field leakage and high bending loss caused by refraction occurring at the boundaries of the bended dielectric waveguide.…”