A K -Band CMOS UWB Radar Transmitter With a Bi-Phase Modulating Pulsed Oscillator

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 60; no. 5; pp. 1405 - 1412
• Main Authors: LEE, Sungeun, KIM, Choul-Young, HONG, Songcheol
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.05.2012; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Asymmetry; Automotive radar; Circuit properties; Circuits of signal characteristics conditioning (including delay circuits); CMOS; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS ultra-wideband (UWB) pulse generator; Delay; Delay circuits; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Integrated circuits; Low level; Microwaves; Modulation; Oscillators; Oscillators, resonators, synthetizers; pulsed oscillator; Radar transmitters; Radiolocalization and radionavigation; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; short-range radar (SRR); Signal generators; Switches; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Transmitters; Ultra wideband radar; UWB radar transmitter; variable delay circuit; Road vehicle radar; Output power; variable delay circuit; K band; High precision; Variable delay; Automotive radar; UWB radar transmitter; Oscillator; Complementary MOS technology; Electric power consumption; Peak power; Pulse width; Base band; Pulse generator; Centimetric wave; CMOS ultra-wideband (UWB) pulse generator; pulsed oscillator; Ultra wide band; Delay circuit; Digital counter; short-range radar (SRR); Ring resonator; Signal generators; Radar transmitters; Delay line; Short range radar
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2012.2188814

This paper presents a K-band CMOS UWB radar transmitter with highly accurate variable delay circuits and a bi-phase modulating pulsed oscillator. The UWB radar transmitter is composed of three blocks: variable delay circuits that consist of a digital synchronized counter and a Vernier delay line (VDL), a baseband control signal generator, and a pulsed oscillator. The VDL allows a high range accuracy level of several millimeters. Asymmetric signals generated by the baseband control signal generator can control the phase of each output pulse. Because the pulsed oscillator operates only for the duration of a pulse, it has an extremely low level of DC power consumption and no LO leakage. It is fabricated with 0.13-μm CMOS technology and a chip with dimensions of 0.98 mm × 0.69 mm. The output spectrum is centered at 26.0 GHz, and the pulse width is controllable from 280 to 680 ps. The peak output power is about 2 dBm.