22–29 GHz Ultra-Wideband CMOS Pulse Generator for Short-Range Radar Applications

The pseudo-millimeter-wave ultra-wideband (UWB) is attractive for applications in short-range automotive radar systems using 22 to 29 GHz in order to realize road safety and intelligent transportation. Although the CMOS is suitable for short- range radar since processing units can be implemented in the same chip as the UWB front-end building block, it is difficult to operate CMOS pulse generators at such a high frequency. To realize the pseudo-millimeter-wave band using CMOS, we have proposed a new pulse generator consisting of a series of delay cells and edge combiners with waveform shaping for short-range radar. As a result of measurement using 90-nm CMOS technology, 1 Gb/s/bit pulses with 71 mV peak-to-peak, 39.2 ps monopulse width and 552 ps envelope width are successfully generated with a power consumption of 1.4 mW at a supply voltage of 0.91 V. This result can be the basis for developing the key technology for one-chip short-range radar sensors.