Power Amplifier for 77-GHz Automotive Radar in 90-nm LP CMOS Technology

Abstract

This letter reports power amplifiers for 77-GHz automotive radar applications in a 90-nm LP (low power) 1P6M CMOS technology. The three-stage single-ended PA has a 12.4 dB gain and a +9 1-dBm saturated output power and the two-stage differential PA has a 11.3 dB gain and a +11 4-dBm output power at in = 1 9 dBm. This is the first letter to report CMOS PA characteristics over full automotive temperature range ( 40 C to 125 C) at 77 GHz range.

A 77GHz CMOS VCO with 11.3GHz tuning range, 6dBm output power, and competitive phase noise in 65nm bulk CMOS

“…Performance variation with temperature and V DD is non-negligible, and the P out variation is directly related to the length of the VCO chain. Finally, our 77GHz VCO with its high P out readily enables integration with CMOS PAs [10]- [11] to realize viable 77GHz-TX capable of operation across wide temperature range. …”

“…The limited TR~10% is then insufficient for manufacturable, i.e., with room for process-voltage-temperature (PVT) variations, VCO for wideband applications such as WPAN at 60GHz and automotive radar at 77GHz. Furthermore, typical CMOS PAs [10]- [12] with output power (P out ) >10dBm (as needed for 60GHz/77GHz applications) require input power ≥0dBm, while majority of the demonstrated VCOs have P out <-10dBm; and high P out tends to trade off TR per loading from stronger buffer. Finally, VCO performance over wide temperature (-40 o C to +125 o C) and typical supply voltage (V DD ) variations (±10%), which can be detrimental particularly with long chain of functional blocks, has not been considered.…”

E-band transformer-based differential 4-way power-combining amplifier

“…This situation is exacerbated by additional loss due to rain, fog, and atmospheric particles such as oxygen and water vapor. Deployment of effective power amplifiers (PAs) with high output power capability is, therefore, necessary to overcome these high path losses .…”

Implementation of V-band power amplifier with high linearity in 90nm CMOS technology

“…Several V-band CMOS power amplifiers have been published [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], those power amplifiers are realized in typical circuit topology such as common-source or cascade configuration. However, the output power has been relatively low under the low supply voltage requirement of CMOS technology.…”