A 14-Gb/s clad dielectric waveguide link using 73GHz carrier frequency with a stochastic RF phase synchronization system in 40nm CMOS

A dielectric waveguide link, referred to as an electrical tube (E-TUBE), with a stochastic RF phase synchronization system is presented. The E-TUBE has 20GHz bandwidth and exhibits a frequency-independent lossprofile. A single-sideband transmission, enabled by the inherent frequency response of the E-TUBE, allows double data throughput. The stochastic RF phase synchronization system recovers the baseband data by synchronizing the received RF signal and the local oscillator signal without analog-to-digital converters, digital signal processors, and quadrature phase clock signals. Up to 14.3-Gb/s signals can be transferred over a 1.2m E-TUBE using 73GHz carrier frequency with a BER<10−13. The IC is fabricated in a 40nm CMOS and the figure-of-merit is 0.3J/b/m∗fC.