Reconfigurable 60-GHz Radar Transmitter SoC with Broadband Frequency Tripler in 45nm SOI CMOS

A reconfigurable 60-GHz radar transmitter with a broadband frequency tripler is proposed to support CW/FMCW, pulse, and PMCW radar waveforms from a single front-end. The proposed IC consists of a wide-band frequency tripler, a two-stage driver, two power mixers with baseband circuitry and serial I/O circuitry. The IC measurements in CW mode operation show an output power of 12.8 dBm (average) and 14.7 dBm (peak) from 54 GHz to 67 GHz with harmonic suppression greater than 27 dB. Pulse and PMCW mode operations are also demonstrated to generate short pulses with the minimum pulse width of 25 ps corresponding to 40 GHz signal bandwidth and 10-Gb/s PRBS modulated signals, respectively. Fabricated in a 45-nm CMOS SOI process, the IC consumes 0.51 W and occupies an active area of 1.95 mm2 excluding pads.