122 GHz SiGe BiCMOS High Resolution FMCW RADAR Front-End for Remote Sensing Applications

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2486377 _(Table of contents)

RADAR systems are starting to see many new areas applications, becoming a part of our everyday life in our automobiles, cell phones, and more. The constant advances in the Silicon-based process technologies, such as SiGe BiCMOS and deep scaled CMOS, paved the way for the implementation of low-cost, highly integrated systems that work in millimeter-wave frequencies (30-300 GHz). The use of this frequency spectrum enables high-resolution sensing applications such as hand-gesture recognition, human gait tracking, vital sign detection, and imaging with the use of RADARs. In this thesis, a 122 GHz FMCW RADAR Front-End is designed for highresolution sensing applications. The designed system employs differential architecture and can operate in both the 122 GHz ISM band, and at an increased bandwidth of 110-130 GHz for sub-cm range resolution performance. The designed system is implemented using IHP 0.13µm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology, which offers HBT devices with ft/fmax of 300/500 GHz. The system consists of an LNA, PA, Mixer, LO buffer amplifier, x16 active frequency multiplier, and a single-ended to differential power divider. The simulation results of the full system show 31 dB receiver conversion gain, 9.9 dB single-sideband noise figure, 10.1dBm output power with a DC power consumption of 247 mW. The full system occupies a die area of 4mm2 , and is suitable for scalable implementations in future. The system simulations verify that the designed system can reliably detect a human hand at a range longer than 1m with a sub-cm range resolution