An X-Band CMOS Digital Phased Array Radar from Hardware to Software

Abstract

Phased array technology features rapid and directional scanning and has become a promising approach for remote sensing and wireless communication. In addition, element-level digitization has increased the feasibility of complicated signal processing and simultaneous multi-beamforming processes. However, the high cost and bulky characteristics of beam-steering systems have prevented their extensive application. In this paper, an X-band element-level digital phased array radar utilizing fully integrated complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transceivers is proposed for achieving a low-cost and compact-size digital beamforming system. An 8–10 GHz transceiver system-on-chip (SoC) fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology offers baseband filtering, frequency translation, and global clock synchronization through the proposed periodic pulse injection technique. A 16-element subarray module with an SoC integration, antenna-in-package, and tile array configuration achieves digital beamforming, back-end computing, and dc–dc conversion with a size of 317 × 149 × 74.6 mm3. A radar demonstrator with scalable subarray modules simultaneously realizes range sensing and azimuth recognition for pulsed radar configurations. Captured by the suggested software-defined pulsed radar, a complete range–azimuth figure with a 1 km maximum observation range can be displayed within 150 ms under the current implementation.

A Software-Defined Radar for Low-Altitude Slow-Moving Small Targets Detection Using Transmit Beam Control

“…It can flexibly alter the operating mode of the radar via control software [29], providing functions such as reconfiguring the transmit waveforms [9], selecting the orthogonal waveforms on transmit antennas adaptively [30], and applying different space modulations of the transmit signal [31]. Wu designed and implemented a software-defined phased array radar [32], effectively reducing the cost of a beam-pointing system, compared with traditional phased array radars. A minimum software-defined radar system proposed in [33] integrated various software-based functions such as waveform generation, beam control, and signal processing.…”