Performance Enhancement of W-Band Radar Through Front End Reconfiguration

While millimeter-wave technology provides the advantages of footprint reduction and enhanced range resolution for radar systems, output power tends to decrease with frequency. Furthermore, the assembly of these components can pose several challenges due to the enhanced losses and parasitics introduced at higher frequencies. In this study, an amplification module consisting of commercial components is designed and integrated with a commercial FMCW W-Band radar system to increase the maximum detectable range. The amplification module consists of power amplifier dies which are assembled for low insertion loss, and power supplies for the power amplifiers. The expected range improvement for the radar is estimated by considering the insertion loss of the GCPW transmission and ribbon bond interconnect which are obtained from electromagnetic simulation. The amplification module is expected to double the range of the original radar.