A Self-Calibrated 16-GHz Subsampling-PLL-Based Fast-Chirp FMCW Modulator With 1.5-GHz Bandwidth

This article presents a 16-GHz frequency-modulated continuous-waveform (FMCW) modulator for radar applications in 28-nm CMOS. A two-point modulation technique is applied to reach a fast-chirp operation. A digital-to-time converter (DTC)-based subsampling phase-locked loop (PLL) is implemented to eliminate the power and noise from the frequency divider. Compared with the conventional delta–sigma division ratio-modulated PLL, this article presents an FM modulator with a finer loop-time resolution that lowers the quantization noise and improves the chirp FM accuracy. A voltage-driven analog varactor enables a programmable chirp bandwidth up to 1.5 GHz. The frequency-digital to analog converter (FDAC) nonlinearity is pre-distorted by an on-chip calibration engine. This FMCW modulator chirps 1.5-GHz bandwidth within $10~\mu \text{s}$ . The corresponding root-mean-square (rms) frequency error is 230 kHz, which is less than 0.015% of the chirp bandwidth.

[1]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  A DTC-Based Subsampling PLL Capable of Self-Calibrated Fractional Synthesis and Two-Point Modulation , 2016, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[2]  Giovanni Marzin,et al.  A 20 Mb/s Phase Modulator Based on a 3.6 GHz Digital PLL With −36 dB EVM at 5 mW Power , 2012, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[3]  Nadav Mazor,et al.  A Dual-Loop Synthesizer With Fast Frequency Modulation Ability for 77/79 GHz FMCW Automotive Radar Applications , 2018, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  Salvatore Levantino,et al.  A 23-GHz Low-Phase-Noise Digital Bang–Bang PLL for Fast Triangular and Sawtooth Chirp Modulation , 2018, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[5]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  A 5.5-GHz Background-Calibrated Subsampling Polar Transmitter With −41.3-dB EVM at 1024 QAM in 28-nm CMOS , 2019, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[6]  Brian P. Ginsburg,et al.  A multimode 76-to-81GHz automotive radar transceiver with autonomous monitoring , 2018, 2018 IEEE International Solid - State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).

[7]  André Bourdoux,et al.  9.4 A 145GHz FMCW-Radar Transceiver in 28nm CMOS , 2019, 2019 IEEE International Solid- State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).

[8]  Robert B. Staszewski,et al.  A 56.4-to-63.4 GHz Multi-Rate All-Digital Fractional-N PLL for FMCW Radar Applications in 65 nm CMOS , 2014, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[9]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  A 9.2–12.7 GHz Wideband Fractional-N Subsampling PLL in 28 nm CMOS With 280 fs RMS Jitter , 2015, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[10]  Ikuo Soga,et al.  Millimeter-wave linear fast-chirp pulse generator in 65-nm CMOS technology , 2016, 2016 11th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC).

[11]  V. P. Trivedi,et al.  An RCP Packaged Transceiver Chipset for Automotive LRR and SRR Systems in SiGe BiCMOS Technology , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[12]  B. Nauta,et al.  A Low Noise Sub-Sampling PLL in Which Divider Noise is Eliminated and PD/CP Noise is Not Multiplied by $N ^{2}$ , 2009, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[13]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  A 10-bit, 550-fs step Digital-to-Time Converter in 28nm CMOS , 2014, ESSCIRC 2014 - 40th European Solid State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC).

[14]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  26.1 A Self-Calibrated 16GHz Subsampling-PLL-Based 30s Fast Chirp FMCW Modulator with 1.5GHz Bandwidth and 100kHz rms Error , 2019, 2019 IEEE International Solid- State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).

[15]  Hiroki Sakurai,et al.  A 1.5GHz-modulation-range 10ms-modulation-period 180kHzrms-frequency-error 26MHz-reference mixed-mode FMCW synthesizer for mm-wave radar application , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[16]  R. Reuter,et al.  Fast chirp FMCW Radar in automotive applications , 2015 .

[17]  Jaeha Kim,et al.  13.1 A 940MHz-bandwidth 28.8µs-period 8.9GHz chirp frequency synthesizer PLL in 65nm CMOS for X-band FMCW radar applications , 2016, 2016 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

[18]  Jri Lee,et al.  A Fully-Integrated 77-GHz FMCW Radar Transceiver in 65-nm CMOS Technology , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[19]  M. Budge,et al.  Range correlation effects on phase and amplitude noise , 1993, Proceedings of Southeastcon '93.

[20]  Jan Craninckx,et al.  Flicker noise upconversion mechanisms in K-band CMOS VCOs , 2015, 2015 IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference (A-SSCC).

[21]  Maciej Wojnowski,et al.  A Highly Integrated 60 GHz 6-Channel Transceiver With Antenna in Package for Smart Sensing and Short-Range Communications , 2016, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[22]  Salvatore Levantino,et al.  A 23GHz low-phase-noise digital bang-bang PLL for fast triangular and saw-tooth chirp modulation , 2018, 2018 IEEE International Solid - State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC).