Dr. Vadim Issakov

There is a growing interest in realization of highly-integrated radar transceivers operating at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies. The need for high-level integration is driven by the motivation for the products to be competitive on the market, this means implementing more features, offer high digital reconfigurability and enhanced RF functionality, consume a minimal chip area, dissipate less power and achieve a lower price. The trend in integrated mm-wave radar systems goes towards using increasingly higher operating frequencies. Frequencies above 100 GHz are very attractive for realizing multi-channel radar systems, due to possibility of module size reduction thanks to scaling of the antennas. 

The talk is focused on highly-integrated radar transceivers in CMOS and SiGe HBT. Motivation is provided for realization of radar sensors at mm-wave frequencies by showing the possible applications. Frequency band allocations for radar at mm-wave frequencies are discussed. Detailed system level consideration is described and step-by-step system design steps are given for an integrated fast-chirp FMCW radar transceiver These include level budget calculation, phase noise, PLL linearity, and analog baseband. System considerations are translated into radar transceiver circuit blocks specifications (e.g. LNA, mixer, PA, VCO, analog baseband etc.). Digital modulation techniques such as phase-modulated continuous-wave (PMCW) are discussed and compared with FMCW. Technology-dependent considerations and challenges related to critical building blocks are discussed (e.g. phase noise, noise figure, operating frequency, routing density, digital baseband). Then, several design examples are presented of integrated radar transceivers operating at V-band and D-band and the circuit architectures discussed. Finally, a vision on novel modulation techniques and trends in MIMO radar array realizations are given.

Biography:

Dr. Issakov received a PhD from the University of Paderborn, Germany in 2010 and is currently serving as mm-Wave Design Lead with Infineon Technologies headquartered in Neubiberg, Germany. His research interests are RF and mm-wave IC design, analog and mixed-signal circuits, radar and communication systems, biomedical electronics, mm- wave characterization techniques, chip/package/PCB co-design techniques and ESD co-design techniques. He is the author or co-author of over 60 technical papers and holds 11 patents. Dr. Issakov serves on technical working groups for wireless power transfer and quantum technologies and MTT TC-11 (Low Noise Techniques). He received the 2019 Outstanding Young Engineeer  Award, and is an associate editor for several MTT publications.