Low Cost, High Performance Transmit/Receive Integrated Circuits on a single chip

The objective of this Phase I proposal is to demonstrate, through a rigorous design and modeling, the feasibility of a single chip Transmit/Receive Integrated Circuits (TRIC) with on-chip controller and compensation networks for next generation X-band radar systems. TRIC will include RF, analog and digital circuits on a single chip. TRIC functionality would include Frequency-modulated Continuous Wave (FM-CW) and Pulsed mode radar operation. The technology node for the single chip solution will be advanced silicon based process such as CMOS sub-um or SiGe BiCMOS process. These processes allow a seamless integration of high performance RF circuits with compact digital circuits. Moreover, they provide a low cost solution as compared to multi-chip modules (MCM). To address performance variability of the transceiver due to process and operating condition variation, a self-correcting approach driven by Built-In Self-Test (BIST) procedure is implemented. The TRIC designed will have high bandwidth (30%), high power 0.5-2W, high transmitter efficiency (>20%) and low system noise figure (<3dB). These system specifications are well suited for applications like FMCW and Pulsed phased array radar applications.