Low-Noise 24 GHz 0.15μm GaAs pHEMT Gilbert Cell Mixer for Intelligent Transportation System Radar Receiver

Abstract

Road traffic accidents are considered as the third cause of human deaths worldwide, while leaving many others with severe injuries and/or in psychological and economical fragile situations. Therefore, several research works have been achieved to improve the reliability of transportation systems. During the last few years, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have been developed, focusing on traffic-safety and traffic-assist systems, to name a few. One of the most common ITS, that integrate between communications and information technology, is the radar sensor working at 24 GHz. In this work, the first mixer stage of a modified ITS radar receiver was designed with an output intermediate frequency of 5.2 GHz, i.e., covering frequency bands accessible to emergency or police services, two of the front-line services involved in road accidents. The designed Gilbert cell mixer uses the 0.15 μm PHEMT GaAs technology. With a conversion gain of 8.7 dB, a single sideband noise figure of 7 dB, a linearity of -13.5 dBm as well as an isolation more than 30 dB, this mixer largely meets the Radar specifications.