Fully packaged millimetre‐wave dielectric waveguide with multimodal excitation

A millimetre‐wave interconnect on a very low‐cost plastic waveguide is proposed for applications in terabit per second wireline links. Simultaneous utilisation of the two fundamental and polarisation‐orthogonal degenerate E x 11 and E y 11 waveguide modes doubles the capacity of a single line without sacrificing robustness or adding implementation cost and complexity. A prototype of the structure has been fabricated in high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) fed with dipole/slot coupling structures on Rogers RO6006, and operates at frequencies of about 75 GHz with an aggregate 3 dB bandwidth exceeding 60 GHz.