A fully integrated 77-GHz radar transmitter based on a low phase-noise 19.25-GHz fundamental VCO

Abstract

A 77-GHz automotive radar transmitter is presented. The transmitter is based on a 19.25-GHz Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator, that feeds two cascaded frequency doubler stages. In a following medium power amplifier (MPA) the signal recovers after frequency transformation. Finally a power amplifier (PA) adds 6 dB to the power level after the MPA. In addition, an emitter follower stage connected to the oscillators output drives a switchable divide-by-16/32 stage realized in emitter-coupled-logic (ECL).