A Polymer Microwave Fiber Link at Y-band for Low-Cost High-Speed Communication

Paper in proceeding, 2026

This paper presents a Y-band (170–260 GHz) Polymer Microwave Fiber (PMF) communication link designed for high data-rate, low-cost short-range interconnects. The transmitter and receiver are implemented in a commercial 90–nm SiGe BiCMOS process and packaged using embedded Wafer-Level Ball Grid Array (eWLB) technology featuring an in-package Vivaldi antenna for PMF launching. Link measurements at 234 GHz demonstrate reliable data transmission up to 60 Gbps over a 30cm PMF using QPSK modulation, achieving BER values below 10−3. The results show that silicon-based transceivers combined with eWLB packaging can deliver high-performance PMF links above 200 GHz, offering a scalable and cost-effective solution for future high-throughput data-center interconnects.