indie Semiconductor has announced the release of its latest product, the TRA_240_097 radar front-end—an integrated transceiver circuit operating in the 240 GHz band with an on-chip antenna. Designed for high-precision short-range radar applications, the TRA_240_097 is ideal for thickness measurement, material analysis, imaging radars, in-line inspection systems, and level metering sensors.
The main field of application of the 240 GHz transceiver radar front end (RFE) is in short range radar systems which require high range resolution. 45GHz of bandwidth theoretically gives a radar range resolution down to 6mm in air, and better than 6mm for other materials with refractive index higher than one. The range resolution is inversely proportional to the refractive index of the material.
The radar front end TRA_240_097 is fabricated using SG13G2 SiGe BiCMOS technology and includes a voltage-controlled oscillator, divide-by-8 frequency divider, an SPDT switch, a frequency multiplier-by-9 chain, frequency doublers, mixers, a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, antenna-coupler and integrated antenna. The below block diagram illustrates the various components present in the radar front-end.
The RF signal from the oscillator is amplified and fed to the frequency multiplier-by-9 chain, a doubler , and via a coupler to the integrated antenna. The RF signal from the oscillator is also directed to the RX path via amplifier and frequency doubler. The RX signal from the antenna is converted to baseband by a mixer with multiplied LO-signal.
The 13.5 GHz VCO has two analog tuning inputs with different tuning ranges and tuning slopes. Both tuning inputs have to be used to obtain the wide RF frequency tuning range of 45 GHz. The analog tuning inputs together with the integrated frequency divider and external fractional-N PLL can be used for frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar operation. With fixed oscillator frequency it can be used in continuous wave (CW) mode. Other modulation schemes are possible as well by utilizing the analog tuning inputs. The chip can be fed with external LO signal. Many chips can be aligned in a massive MIMO system with external LO or daisy chained using on-chip VCO.
This radar front-end requires a DC supply voltage from 3.13 V to 3.47 V and consumes 250 mA of current. It is housed in a QFN40 package that measures 5.00 x 5.00 mm and has an exposed pad.