WIDEBAND ON-CHIP K-BAND RF FRONT-END FOR VEHICULAR FMCW RADAR APPLICATIONS IN 0.18 μM CMOS PROCESS

Abstract

In this paper, we present a wideband on-chip K-band RF front-end including a transmitter and receiver for vehicular FMCW radar applications using 0.18m CMOS process. To achieve wideband performance, an RC feedback circuit is applied to the input stage of ampliflers, as well as wideband passive circuits such as Marchand type baluns and Wilkinson type power dividers to the mixer LO port and transmitter output, respectively. The designed chip shows a 3- dB bandwidth of 6GHz and 4.8GHz for the receiver and transmitter, respectively. The receiver represents a gain of 18dB and an input- referred 1dB compression point of i9dBm at an RF frequency of 24.15GHz and an IF frequency of 100kHz. The transmitter shows a power gain of 8.9dB and an output power of 6.8dBm at a frequency of 24.15GHz. The total chip has a size of 1500m £ 1270m while consuming 71mA with a supply voltage of 1.8V. Further, the designed RF front-end chip has been verifled by radar performance tests such as the Doppler shift and range information. The test result for range information shows good agreement with theoretical expectations.