A K-band pulse radar transceiver with highly digital closed-loop time-of-flight measurement

This paper presents a K-band pulse radar transceiver in 130 nm CMOS. A new highly digital closed-loop time-of-flight (ToF) measurement technique is developed, which measures the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) of the circulated pulse train instead of the ToF. This technique enables both PRF scaling and pulse amplitude scaling, achieving a good range resolution without a complex TDC. A PLL with a new bang-bang PFD is used to capture the PRF. The whole radar transceiver consumes 56 mW power while occupying an active area of 1 mm².