A 24GHz wideband single-channel SiGe bipolar transceiver chip for monostatic FMCW radar systems

In this paper a monostatic fully integrated single-channel SiGe transceiver chip around a center frequency of 24 GHz is presented. The architecture consists of a fundamental VCO, a receive mixer, a divider chain, and coupling/matching networks. All circuits, except for the divider, are designed with the extensive use of on-chip monolithic integrated spiral inductors. The chip is fabricated in a SiGe bipolar production technology which offers an f_T of 170 GHz and f_max of 250 GHz. The phase noise at 1 MHz offset is better than -100 dBc/Hz in a wide frequency range of 8 GHz. The peak output power of the chip is -1 dBm while the receive mixer offers a 1 dBm input referred compression point to keep it from being saturated. The chip has a power consumption of 245 mW and uses an area of 1.51 mm². A complete FMCW radar system prototype is also presented with a power consumption below 1.6 W and a range error of ≈± 250 μm.