Hans Peter Forstner

A fully integrated 77-GHz radar transmitter based on a low phase-noise 19.25-GHz fundamental VCO

A 77-GHz automotive radar transmitter is presented. The transmitter is based on a 19.25-GHz Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator, that feeds two cascaded frequency doubler stages. In a following medium power amplifier (MPA) the signal recovers after frequency transformation. Finally a power amplifier (PA) adds 6 dB to the power level after the MPA. In addition, an emitter follower stage connected to the oscillators output drives a switchable divide-by-16/32 stage realized in emitter-coupled-logic (ECL).

Industrial mmWave Radar Sensor in Embedded Wafer-Level BGA Packaging Technology

We present highly integrated 60-GHz radar transceivers for industrial sensor applications. The bistatic and monostatic transceivers are implemented in the SiGe bipolar technology and packaged using the embedded wafer-level ball grid array technology that allows for direct embedding of the antennas in the package redistribution layer. In this way, very compact and efficient radar frontends comprising all millimeterwave components can be implemented in an 8 × 8 mm2 package. These frontends were soldered on a standard low-cost printed circuit board based on FR4 material. For verification of the proposed frontends, an frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system was developed and set up within this paper. Theoretical considerations and simulations as well as corresponding measurements were carried out for the evaluation of the designed system. The demonstrator results of these embedded radar sensors show an excellent system performance at a high integration level.

A differential 77-GHz receiver with current re-use low-noise amplifier in SiGe technology

This paper presents a differential current re-use stacked double common-emitter stage low-noise amplifier and corresponding receiver frontend for 77 GHz automotive radar systems. Both circuits have been manufactured in an improved SiGe:C HBT technology with ft/fmax = 200/250 GHz and can operate in differential or single-ended mode. The receiver shows a gain of 24.5 dB and single sideband noise figure of 15.8 dB. The gain and noise figure of the LNA in single-ended mode are 12 dB and 9.5 dB respectively, suggesting a differential noise figure of approximately 6.5 dB.

A fully integrated 60-GHz radar sensor with partly integrated phase-locked loop

A partly integrated phase-locked loop (PLL) accompanied by a 60 GHz IQ-transmitter and IQ-receiver is presented in this paper. The chip has been designed to support wireless data communication applications as well as radar applications for level sensing or moving-target-indication (MTI) in the ISM band. This contribution focuses on the implementation of the PLL, furthermore it shows a CW-radar-measurement scenario using an RF demonstrator.

A 77-GHz FMCW radar transceiver sourced through a 19-GHz SiGe Colpitts oscillator

An integrated 19-GHz Colpitts oscillator for a 77-GHz FMCW automotive radar frontend application is presented. The Colpitts oscillator has been realized in a fully differential circuit architecture. The VCOs 19 GHz output signal is buffered with an emitter follower stage and used as a LO signal source for a 77-GHz radar transceiver architecture. The LO frequency is quadrupled and amplified to drive the switching quad of a Gilbert-type mixer. As the quadrupler-mixer chip is required to describe the radar-sensor it is introduced, but the main focus of this paper aims the design of the sensors LO source. In addition, the VCO-chip provides a divide-by-8 stage. The divider is either used for on-wafer measurements or later on in a PLL application.

77 GHz Radar Transmitter With PLL Based on a Sub-Harmonic Gilbert Frequency Doubler

This contribution highlights the usage of a high-quality voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) at 19.25 GHz fundamental frequency with a succeeding times four frequency multiplication scheme facilitating a 77 GHz output frequency. Signal tapping at the VCOs common emitter node allows obtaining the second-order harmonic tone that drives a single Gilbert frequency doubler. Beneficial to the PLL implementation is a reduced overall prescaler ratio allowing faster frequency ramps.

A novel 77-GHz radar frontend with 19-GHz signal distribution on RF-PCB substrate

A novel radar frontend for 77 GHz mid-range-radar (MRR) and short-range-radar (SRR) applications is presented. The radar sensor makes use of a Colpitts oscillator, frequency multipliers, and a transceive (TRX) mixer. A single sensor contains up to four channels using antenna arrays for angular detection relative to the sensor. The characterization of the integrated circuits parameters has been carried out using a two-channel sensor with waveguide (WG) transitions. A radar measurement scenario has been realized using a four-channel sensor with a differential antenna array. All sensors have been implemented on off-the-shelf printed circuit board (PCB) substrate.