Electrical engineering

Physics

Phase-locked loop

Transistor

CMOS

Voltage-controlled oscillator

Frequency divider

Phase noise

Harmonic

Frequency multiplier

Engineering

Monolithic microwave integrated circuit

Voltage

Amplifier

Local oscillator

Antenna (radio)

Acoustics

Frequency synthesizer

Electronic engineering

ISM band

BiCMOS

Radar

Telecommunications

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

This article presents a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) harmonic radar in the 61-/122-GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency bands. The radar is based on two self-designed monolithic microwave wave integrated circuits (MMICs) for the transceiver (TRX) and tag which are fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The presented TRX-MMIC consists of a fundamental voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a power amplifier (PA), Wilkinson power dividers, and a static divide-by-16 chain for stabilization within a phase-locked loop (PLL) in the transmitter (TX) part. The receiver (RX) part has two channels with a low noise amplifier (LNA), a Gilbert cell mixer, and an intermediate frequency (IF)-amplifier each. The fundamental of the VCO is converted by a frequency doubler and distributed to the local oscillator (LO) input of the RX-mixers. With such a TRX architecture the active nonlinear tag which consists of antennas, pre-amplifiers, and a frequency doubler can be detected. For a sweep from 60 to 64 GHz, a spatial resolution of 4 cm at 1-m distance and a range of 23.3 m is achieved. With these characteristics, the tag enables harmonic radar applications in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) range for medium range with high accuracy and resolution with a small form factor.

A Compact Harmonic Radar System With Active Tags at 61/122 GHz ISM Band in SiGe BiCMOS for Precise Localization