Efficient Implementation of Polymer Microwave Fiber Links Employing Non-Galvanic Coupling Mechanism

In this paper, the performance, advantages and challenges of polymer microwave fibers (PMF) for sub-THz links are evaluated first. Then, a simple and elegant transceiver-integrated circuit (IC) and PMF wireless coupling scheme is presented. The proposed solution utilizes an advanced IC packaging technology to implement a Vivaldi antenna-in-package (AiP). The antenna is designed to provide lateral radiation and excellent directivity, so the proposed solution is very simple, compact, robust and cost-efficient: the IC readily connects to the PMF and the coupling is merely achieved by the packaged IC, without the need for any extra interface. The system operates at around 140 GHz, achieving a coupling loss of just 3.5 dB.