Plastic brings surprising benefits to high-speed communications

What if an ordinary plastic tube could perform better than copper or fiber optic cable for high-speed communications? Leti has started to prove that it can with P-Link, a system that is shockingly simple. The system was able to transmit a signal from a STMicroelectronics circuit over at distance of two meters at 7 Gbit/s.

This small revolution was made possible by the use of millimeter waves (30 GHz to 300 GHz), rather than the nanometer waves used in optical communications. The radio signal is propagated inside the plastic tube and in the material itself. The losses are minimal, so the system is very energy efficient. Plastic is cheap, sturdy, and resistant to vibration and electromagnetic disturbances—qualities that could interest a number of industries, from automotive and aerospace to data centers.

Contact: didier.belot@cea.fr

Facebook

Twitter