Miniature interferometric down-converter for V-band radar applications

This paper presents a millimeter-wave down-converter based on a modified six-port interferometric technique. The system developed for radar applications in miniature hybrid microstrip technology is implemented on a thin ceramic substrate. The circuit includes two quadratic detectors for power detection instead of four in conventional six-port systems. The demodulation of millimeter-wave signals by the proposed approach is experimentally demonstrated. In comparison with the six-port technique, the system reduces the circuit size, the cost and the power consumption.