Compact High-Power Photonic Millimeter-Wave Emitter Module for 60-GHz-Band Fiber Radio Links

We developed compact high-power photonic millimeter-wave emitter (PME) modules for 60-GHz fiber radio links. The PME chip is a monolithic integration of a uni-traveling-carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) and an antenna. One module was fabricated by attaching the chip and a plastic housing to a metal substrate, and the equivalent-isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of over 8 dBm was obtained with weak directivity of the radiated pattern. This module is suitable for point-to-multi-point communication. It is very compact, 29 × 24 × 6 mm. A module whose antenna gain was increased by attaching a dielectric lens to it was also fabricated, and the estimated EIRP of 18 dBm was obtained. This type of module is suitable for point-to-point communication and it too is compact, 29 × 24 × 17.5 mm. We achieved high-speed error-free data transmission of 1.25- and 2.5-Gbit/s phase-shift keyed (PSK) signal. The maximum distances of free-space propagation were estimated to be 18.2 and 8.9 m at bit rates of 1.25 and 2.5 Gbit/s, respectively.