A 76-GHz to 81-GHz, 0.6° RMS Phase Error Multichannel Transmitter With a Novel Phase Detector and Compensation Technique

Abstract

A multichannel transceiver operating in 76–81 GHz with precisely phase-controlled transmitter for the automotive radar application is presented. To achieve high phase accuracy of transmit signal, a novel phase detector using third-order distortion is proposed to compensate the phase control error. To avoid the insensitivity region on specific phase condition, the frequency-shifted method applying the propagation delay difference between transmit and reference signal path is also presented. The multichannel transmitter using proposed detector achieves less than 0.6° root-mean-square (RMS) phase error in 76-GHz to 81-GHz frequency range, over −40 °C–125 °C ambient temperature condition. Since the proposed phase detector does not use the other TX as reference, it is suitable for extending the number of channels. This transceiver, including the proposed phase detector is implemented in 65-nm CMOS technology. The phase detector consumes 1.8 mW per channel and occupies 0.15 mm2 per channel.