A wideband 62-mW 60-GHz FMCW radar in 28-nm CMOS

This article presents an ultralow-power 60-GHz indoor frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar in 28-nm CMOS. The radar front end employs a tunable matching network (TMN), which tracks the chirp frequency and supports a 17% fractional bandwidth, covering unlicensed 60-GHz bands (57-66 GHz). A frequency sixtupler chain (x6) in the transmitter (TX) provides an output power of 8.1 dBm while achieving >20% dc-to-RF efficiency. A mixer-first receiver (RX) front end followed by a source degenerated high-pass (HP) filter suppresses TX-to-RX leakage (spillover) and induces minimal spillover-to-target intermodulation. The RX exhibits a 10.5-dB noise figure (NF) at 60 GHz with only 5.6-mW power consumption, making it suitable for an MIMO array. The radar IC with its DSP platform fully demonstrates its capability in indoor sensing scenarios. The duty-cycling compatible design enabled by the 1-μs radar startup time consumes 62 mW/18 mW in continuous mode/6.25% duty-cycled mode, a record low dc power compared to the state-of-the-art radars in this frequency range.