A CMOS 77-GHz Receiver Front-End for Automotive Radar

Author

Viet Hoang Le ; Hoa Thai Duong ; Anh Trong Huynh ; Ta, Chien M. ; Fan Zhang ; Evans, Robin J. ; Skafidas, E.

Author_Institution

Victoria Res. Lab., Nat. ICT Australia, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Volume

61

Issue

10

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

3783

Lastpage

3793

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a receiver (Rx) front-end for automotive radar application operating at 76-77 GHz. The Rx employs a double conversion architecture, which consists of a five-stage low-noise amplifier (LNA), a sub-harmonic mixer (SHM), and a double-balanced passive mixer (PSM). By adopting this architecture, millimeter-wave frequency synthesizer design can be relaxed. In the LNA layout, the output of each stage is positioned close to the input of the follow stage, thus creating a LC resonance load. As a result, complex interstage matching networks is simplified. The SHM driven by a 38-GHz local oscillator (LO) is adopted to avoid push/pull effect and power consumption of the voltage-controlled oscillator. A PSM is utilized for the second conversion since it consumes no dc current and has low flickering noise. To connect the singled-ended LNA and SHM, a 77-GHz balun is designed; and for driving the SHM, two 38-GHz baluns and an in-phase/quadrature coupler to provide quadrature 38-GHz LO are designed. The proposed Rx is implemented in a 65-nm CMOS technology and measurement results show 16-dB voltage gain and 13-dB calculated noise figure while dissipating 23.5 mA from a black 1.2-V supply.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; MIMIC; baluns; circuit layout; frequency synthesizers; low noise amplifiers; millimetre wave oscillators; millimetre wave radar; road vehicle radar; voltage-controlled oscillators; waveguide couplers; CMOS receiver front-end; LC resonance load; LNA layout; PSM; SHM; automotive radar; baluns; complex interstage matching network; current 23.5 mA; double conversion architecture; double-balanced passive mixer; frequency 38 GHz; frequency 76 GHz to 77 GHz; gain 16 dB; in-phase coupler; low-noise amplifier; millimeter-wave frequency synthesizer design; quadrature coupler; size 65 nm; subharmonic mixer; voltage 1.2 V; voltage-controlled oscillator; CMOS integrated circuits; Gain; Impedance; Impedance matching; Mixers; Radar; Transistors; 77-GHz CMOS radar; Balun; in-phase/quadrature (IQ) coupler; low-noise amplifier (LNA); passive mixer (PSM); receiver (Rx) front-end; sub-harmonic mixer (SHM);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2013.2279368

Filename

6590027