WIDEBAND ON-CHIP K-BAND RF FRONT-END FOR VEHICULAR FMCW RADAR APPLICATIONS IN 0.18 μm CMOS PROCESS

In this paper, we present a wideband on-chip K-band RF front-end including a transmitter and receiver for vehicular FMCW radar applications using 0.18μm CMOS process. To achieve wideband performance, an RC feedback circuit is applied to the input stage of amplifiers, as well as wideband passive circuits such as Marchand type baluns and Wilkinson type power dividers to the mixer LO port and transmitter output, respectively. The designed chip shows a 3dB bandwidth of 6GHz and 4.8 GHz for the receiver and transmitter, respectively. The receiver represents a gain of 18 dB and an inputreferred 1 dB compression point of −9 dBm at an RF frequency of 24.15GHz and an IF frequency of 100 kHz. The transmitter shows a power gain of 8.9 dB and an output power of 6.8 dBm at a frequency of 24.15GHz. The total chip has a size of 1500μm × 1270μm while consuming 71mA with a supply voltage of 1.8 V. Further, the designed RF front-end chip has been verified by radar performance tests such as the Doppler shift and range information. The test result for range information shows good agreement with theoretical expectations.