Design and implementation of a W-band single-antenna frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar front-end system-on-chip for automotive applications

Abstract

Millimeter-wave sensors are a promising technology that can enrich human’s quality of life by bringing the next level of awareness and sensing to the smart devices. Thanks to the advanced nanoscale CMOS technology as a core of high-performance digital circuits, low-cost CMOS transistors can operate up to terahertz frequencies, which opens up this opportunity for designing mm-wave system-on-chips (SoCs). As a result of the higher frequency, bulky radar sensors which have been traditionally used in limited applications can be implemented within hand size boxes. This miniaturization has been ever continued so that the antenna is integrated on the chip with the transceiver and other parts of the system. Among different applications for the mm-wave radars, automotive radars in W-band have been studied in this dissertation as vital sensors in the active safety monitoring and the autonomous driverless vehicles. While phased-array transceivers, on-chip antennas, and fully integrated radar chips have been the focus of the past reported literature, in this thesis we emphasize to further reduce the size and cost of the radar sensor by adopting a single-antenna approach. We propose an adaptive leakage cancellation scheme to improve the isolation level of a single-antenna architecture for frequency-modulated continues-wave (FMCW) radars at the mm-wave frequencies. Our suggested architecture employs an analog closed-loop feedback circuit to flexibly track and nullify leakage signals at the input of the receiver. The proposed transceiver was implemented in 65-nm CMOS and was measured at 80 GHz. Besides, a radar module using the chip attached to an on-PCB antenna was fabricated. A metallic object (40cmx50cm) was detected within a range of 19 m which demonstrates our approach is capable of being used in short-range automotive applications.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology