Differential Retrodirective Array With Integrated Circuits in Low-Cost 0.18 μm CMOS for Automatic Tracking

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 70; no. 2; pp. 1587 - 1590
• Main Authors: Guo, Jiacheng, Shen, Yizhu, Ye, Kai, Hu, Sanming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.02.2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Amplifier design; Antenna arrays; Automatic tracking; Circular polarization; circular polarization (CP); CMOS; differential circuits; Frequency measurement; Gain; Integrated circuits; Low cost; Low voltage; Microstrip antenna arrays; Mixers; Moving targets; Phased arrays; Power amplifiers; Power consumption; Radio frequency; retrodirective array (RDA); Tracking
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2021.3111206

This communication presents a differential retrodirective array (RDA) for real-time tracking. The proposed differential RDA consists of three phase-conjugating chips and two circularly polarized antenna arrays. The phase-conjugating circuit chip, which is in <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">0.18~\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS process, includes a differential low-noise amplifier, a double-balanced mixer, and a differential power amplifier. The specifically designed chip consumes 38.4 mW with a low voltage supply of 1.2 V. Experimental results of monostatic and bistatic cases show that the RDA has a 3 dB beamwidth up to 77°. To the best knowledge of the authors, the proposed RDA with circular polarization, which is promising for tracking free-moving targets, is the first differential RDA enabled by specifically designed low-cost CMOS chips.