A 253mW/channel 4TX/4RX pulsed chirping phased-array radar TRX in 65nm CMOS for X-band synthetic-aperture radar imaging

Abstract

Airborne or spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) targeted for micro-unmanned aerial vehicles (UaV) or micro-satellites is capable of observing large area under all weather conditions with strong penetration, and finds many emerging applications in defence, geology, oceanography, agriculture and other areas [1]. Phased-array SAR, operating in three modes of spotlight, stripmap and scanSAR, can significantly improve the spatial resolution and detection SNR by steering the beams to the targets. The existing SAR system is still constrained by power, size, and performance for payload in micro-UAVs/micro-satellites. This paper describes the development of an X-band phased-array radar TRX IC achieving a power of 253mW/channel, and resolution of <;30cm, with a die size of 7.8mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .