Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design

The proliferation of radar technology has given rise to a growing demand for advanced, high-performance transmitter front-ends operating in the 24 GHz frequency band. This paper presents a design analysis of a radio frequency (RF) transmitter (TX) front-end operated at a 24 GHz frequency and designe...

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Main Authors: Tahesin Samira Delwar, Unal Aras, Abrar Siddique, Yangwon Lee, Jee-Youl Ryu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-12-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/24/9704
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author Tahesin Samira Delwar
Unal Aras
Abrar Siddique
Yangwon Lee
Jee-Youl Ryu
author_facet Tahesin Samira Delwar
Unal Aras
Abrar Siddique
Yangwon Lee
Jee-Youl Ryu
author_sort Tahesin Samira Delwar
collection DOAJ
description The proliferation of radar technology has given rise to a growing demand for advanced, high-performance transmitter front-ends operating in the 24 GHz frequency band. This paper presents a design analysis of a radio frequency (RF) transmitter (TX) front-end operated at a 24 GHz frequency and designed using 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology for radar applications. The proposed TX front-end design includes the integration of an up-conversion mixer and power amplifier (PA). The up-conversion mixer is a Gilbert cell-based design that translates the 2.4 GHz intermediate frequency (IF) signal and 21.6 GHz local oscillator (LO) signal to the 24 GHz RF output signal. The mixer is designed with a novel technique that includes a duplex transconductance path (D<sub>TP</sub>) for enhancing the mixer’s linearity. The D<sub>TP</sub> of the mixer includes a primary transconductance path (P<sub>TP</sub>) and a secondary transconductance path (S<sub>TP</sub>). The P<sub>TP</sub> incorporates a common source (CS) amplifier, while the S<sub>TP</sub> incorporates an improved cross-quad transconductor (I<sub>CQT</sub>). The integrated PA in the TX front-end is a class AB tunable two-stage PA that can be tuned with the help of varactors as a synchronous mode to increase the PA bandwidth or stagger mode to obtain a high gain. The PA is tuned to 24 GHz as a synchronous mode PA for the TX front-end operation. The proposed TX front-end showed an excellent output power of 11.7 dBm and dissipated 7.5 mW from a 1.2 V supply. In addition, the TX front-end achieved a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 47% and 1 dB compression point (OP<sub>1</sub>dB) of 10.5 dBm. In this case, the output power is 10.5 dBm higher than the linear portion of the response. The methodologies presented herein have the potential to advance the state of the art in 24 GHz radar technology, fostering innovations in fields such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and remote sensing.
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spelling doaj.art-0369c28bf54d4ad08c31c664d2bd6c312023-12-22T14:40:18ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-12-012324970410.3390/s23249704Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter DesignTahesin Samira Delwar0Unal Aras1Abrar Siddique2Yangwon Lee3Jee-Youl Ryu4Department of Smart Robot Convergence and Application Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Smart Robot Convergence and Application Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Global IT Engineering, Kyungsung University, Busan 48434, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Spatial Information Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of KoreaDepartment of Smart Robot Convergence and Application Engineering, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Republic of KoreaThe proliferation of radar technology has given rise to a growing demand for advanced, high-performance transmitter front-ends operating in the 24 GHz frequency band. This paper presents a design analysis of a radio frequency (RF) transmitter (TX) front-end operated at a 24 GHz frequency and designed using 65 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology for radar applications. The proposed TX front-end design includes the integration of an up-conversion mixer and power amplifier (PA). The up-conversion mixer is a Gilbert cell-based design that translates the 2.4 GHz intermediate frequency (IF) signal and 21.6 GHz local oscillator (LO) signal to the 24 GHz RF output signal. The mixer is designed with a novel technique that includes a duplex transconductance path (D<sub>TP</sub>) for enhancing the mixer’s linearity. The D<sub>TP</sub> of the mixer includes a primary transconductance path (P<sub>TP</sub>) and a secondary transconductance path (S<sub>TP</sub>). The P<sub>TP</sub> incorporates a common source (CS) amplifier, while the S<sub>TP</sub> incorporates an improved cross-quad transconductor (I<sub>CQT</sub>). The integrated PA in the TX front-end is a class AB tunable two-stage PA that can be tuned with the help of varactors as a synchronous mode to increase the PA bandwidth or stagger mode to obtain a high gain. The PA is tuned to 24 GHz as a synchronous mode PA for the TX front-end operation. The proposed TX front-end showed an excellent output power of 11.7 dBm and dissipated 7.5 mW from a 1.2 V supply. In addition, the TX front-end achieved a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 47% and 1 dB compression point (OP<sub>1</sub>dB) of 10.5 dBm. In this case, the output power is 10.5 dBm higher than the linear portion of the response. The methodologies presented herein have the potential to advance the state of the art in 24 GHz radar technology, fostering innovations in fields such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and remote sensing.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/24/970424 GHzpower amplifierradartransmitter front-endup-conversion mixer
spellingShingle Tahesin Samira Delwar
Unal Aras
Abrar Siddique
Yangwon Lee
Jee-Youl Ryu
Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
Sensors
24 GHz
power amplifier
radar
transmitter front-end
up-conversion mixer
title Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
title_full Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
title_fullStr Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
title_full_unstemmed Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
title_short Front-End Development for Radar Applications: A Focus on 24 GHz Transmitter Design
title_sort front end development for radar applications a focus on 24 ghz transmitter design
topic 24 GHz
power amplifier
radar
transmitter front-end
up-conversion mixer
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/24/9704
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AT unalaras frontenddevelopmentforradarapplicationsafocuson24ghztransmitterdesign
AT abrarsiddique frontenddevelopmentforradarapplicationsafocuson24ghztransmitterdesign
AT yangwonlee frontenddevelopmentforradarapplicationsafocuson24ghztransmitterdesign
AT jeeyoulryu frontenddevelopmentforradarapplicationsafocuson24ghztransmitterdesign