Compact bistatic 160 GHz transceiver MMIC with phase noise optimized synthesizer for FMCW radar

This paper presents an ultra compact bistatic FMCW radar transceiver MMIC at 160 GHz with a mixer-based synthesizer concept. The integrated mixer converts a ramp signal with a stabilized local oscillator (SLO) signal to the RF output signal. The usage of a mixer reduces the frequency multiplication factor of the ramp signal and hence improves the phase noise at 160 GHz. The fixed frequency local oscillator for the up-conversion has a comparably small phase noise level compared to the ramp input signal and does not contribute significantly to the total phase noise level at 160 GHz. Apart from the synthesizer, the MMIC also includes a power amplifier with a maximum output power of 2 dBm, two efficient integrated antennas with a wide radiation pattern, and an IQ-receiver. Two FMCW radar responses recorded with a bandwidth of 20 GHz show the dynamic range of this sensor and its near range behavior. The compact SiGe MMIC requires only a chip area of 1.4mm × 1.0mm and consumes 285mW from a 3V power supply.