Power Breakdown Threshold of a Plasmonic Waveguide Filter

The services provided by satellite communications are continuously increasing, and this demands a higher bandwidth and power consumption. The current devices involved with this problem are waveguides and filters. Recent research shows the technological limit of these macro-devices, so that it is necessary to work in new designs using higher frequency than microwaves, because the power consumption would be reduced and the data rate would increase from 195 Gbps to 5,600 Tbps. The use of optical communications in satellites would help to satisfy the demand of new services. In this article, the use of plasmonic waveguide filters is proposed to demultiplex signals in real time instead of the use of digital grating processors (DGP). These filters operate with surface plasmon polaritons in a metal-insulator-metal structure. Their power breakdown threshold is obtained and analyzed in a variable pressure range and operating at different wavelengths.