A 60-GHz integrated radar transmitter with multiple frequency inputs and digital adjustable gain in a 130-nm BiCMOS technology

In this paper a 60GHz monolithic transmitter for high precision based industrial radar systems is presented. The integrated transmitter has been designed using a 0.13 mu m SiGe BiCMOS process from IHP (SG13G2) and includes multiplier, multiplexer, power amplifier and a digital interface. For testing, a PCB interface adapter is developed to control and supply the chip directly on the wafer prober. The integrated transmitter circuit has a size of 1800 mu m x 1600 mu m and a maximum power consumption of 148.5mW from a 3.3V power supply. The circuit provides four frequency inputs and multiplies them up to 60GHz. The chip delivers a output power of 8dBm at 60GHz and min. 5dBm over a frequency range from 55 to 65GHz. The input path is switched and the output power is adjustable by a digital interface between -20 and 8dBm at 60GHz. This serial interface is realized in 0.13 mu m CMOS logic and consists of a 15 bit shift register, decoder and and analog interface.