Design of X -Band RF CMOS Transceiver for FMCW Monopulse Radar

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 2009-01, Vol.57 (1), p.61-70
• Main Authors: Sen Wang, Kun-Hung Tsai, Kuo-Ken Huang, Si-Xian Li, Hsien-Shun Wu, Tzuang, C.-K.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amplifiers; Applied sciences; Band pass filters; Chips; Circuit properties; CMOS; CMOS technology; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; FM radar; Frequency modulation; hybrid; Integrated circuits; Low-noise amplifiers; monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs); Noise levels; Oscillators, resonators, synthetizers; Power dividers; Quadratures; Radar applications; Radio frequencies; Radiocommunications; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Radiolocalization and radionavigation; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Switches; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Transceivers; transmission line (TL); Transmitters. Receivers; Voltage-controlled oscillators; X-band
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2008.2008942

In this paper, an X-band CMOS single chip integrating 16 building blocks is developed for frequency modulation continuous wave radar application. The quadrature and monopulse transceiver consists of a voltage-controlled oscillator, amplifiers, Wilkinson power dividers, 90deg hybrid low-noise amplifiers, rat-race hybrid, a single-pole double-throw switch, an active bandpass filter (BPF), and mixers. The transceiver is fabricated in a standard mixed-signal/RF bulk 0.18-mum CMOS technology with a chip area of 2.6 mm 3.3 mm, including contact pads. The transceiver is implemented by meandered complementary-conducting-strip transmission lines demonstrating their capability of miniaturizing circuits such as 90deg hybrid and rat-race hybrid with 95% and 98% size reduction compared to the prototype designs, respectively. The active BPF consumes 4.5 mW achieving 0-dB insertion loss at the passband. The total power consumption of the transceiver is 0.35 W. Output power of the transmitter is 1 dBm with a 35-dB second harmonic suppression. Moreover, the on-chip isolations between T/R in this compacted transceiver are more than 60 dB. The measured receiver gain and NF are -4.5 and 11.5 dB, respectively. Finally, the obtained in-phase and quadrature signals demonstrate 0.6-dB amplitude and 7deg phase imbalance.