A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar
The number of environment-detecting sensors inside cars continuously increases, to enable failsafe autonomous driving. With more sensors, the probability of performance degrading interferences increases. A promising solution to the interferences is orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) rada...
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IEEE
2024-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Journal of Microwaves |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10605125/ |
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| author | Jan Schoepfel Tobias T. Braun Julia Hellwig Holger Rucker Nils Pohl |
| author_facet | Jan Schoepfel Tobias T. Braun Julia Hellwig Holger Rucker Nils Pohl |
| author_sort | Jan Schoepfel |
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| description | The number of environment-detecting sensors inside cars continuously increases, to enable failsafe autonomous driving. With more sensors, the probability of performance degrading interferences increases. A promising solution to the interferences is orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) radar. Due to the complex modulation scheme, the analog front end, especially the power amplifier in the transmitter, has to deal with a high peak-to-average power ratio. Therefore, conventional amplifiers have to be operated in power back-off to maintain linear operation at the drawback of reduced power-added efficiency. To mitigate this problem, a Doherty power amplifier for an automotive radar transceiver is proposed. In this work, we present a design methodology for an integrated Doherty amplifier for automotive radar applications, focussing on the theory of operation by analyzing transistor-level simulations. Small- and large signal simulations analyze the concept of load modulation for a Doherty amplifier in the automotive frequency band from 76--81 GHz. Using a fully differential transmission-line-based approach, we showcase the superior performance of an automotive Doherty amplifier over an conventional state-of-the-art reference amplifier. In measurements, the proposed Doherty amplifier achieves a saturated output power of 17.2 dBm with a peak power-added efficiency of 11.6%. When operating in 6 dB back-off, the PAE still amounts to 6.1%. Thereby we propose to improve conventional automotive power amplifiers by incorporating them into a Doherty amplifier. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7d30405b64d64ad8bd7349734cd02e54 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2692-8388 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
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| series | IEEE Journal of Microwaves |
| spelling | doaj-art-7d30405b64d64ad8bd7349734cd02e542025-08-20T01:58:20ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Microwaves2692-83882024-01-014472173210.1109/JMW.2024.341943010605125A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive RadarJan Schoepfel0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4009-4924Tobias T. Braun1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9938-5697Julia Hellwig2Holger Rucker3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7407-959XNils Pohl4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-638XInstitute of Integrated Systems, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, GermanyInstitute of Integrated Systems, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, GermanyInstitute of Integrated Systems, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, GermanyIHP- Leibniz-Institut für innovative Mikroelektronik, Frankfurt (Oder), GermanyInstitute of Integrated Systems, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, GermanyThe number of environment-detecting sensors inside cars continuously increases, to enable failsafe autonomous driving. With more sensors, the probability of performance degrading interferences increases. A promising solution to the interferences is orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) radar. Due to the complex modulation scheme, the analog front end, especially the power amplifier in the transmitter, has to deal with a high peak-to-average power ratio. Therefore, conventional amplifiers have to be operated in power back-off to maintain linear operation at the drawback of reduced power-added efficiency. To mitigate this problem, a Doherty power amplifier for an automotive radar transceiver is proposed. In this work, we present a design methodology for an integrated Doherty amplifier for automotive radar applications, focussing on the theory of operation by analyzing transistor-level simulations. Small- and large signal simulations analyze the concept of load modulation for a Doherty amplifier in the automotive frequency band from 76--81 GHz. Using a fully differential transmission-line-based approach, we showcase the superior performance of an automotive Doherty amplifier over an conventional state-of-the-art reference amplifier. In measurements, the proposed Doherty amplifier achieves a saturated output power of 17.2 dBm with a peak power-added efficiency of 11.6%. When operating in 6 dB back-off, the PAE still amounts to 6.1%. Thereby we propose to improve conventional automotive power amplifiers by incorporating them into a Doherty amplifier.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10605125/Dohertypower amplifierautomotiveW-Bandmillimeter-wave (mm-wave)monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) |
| spellingShingle | Jan Schoepfel Tobias T. Braun Julia Hellwig Holger Rucker Nils Pohl A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar IEEE Journal of Microwaves Doherty power amplifier automotive W-Band millimeter-wave (mm-wave) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) |
| title | A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar |
| title_full | A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar |
| title_fullStr | A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar |
| title_full_unstemmed | A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar |
| title_short | A 79 GHz SiGe Doherty Power Amplifier Suitable for Next-Generation Automotive Radar |
| title_sort | 79 ghz sige doherty power amplifier suitable for next generation automotive radar |
| topic | Doherty power amplifier automotive W-Band millimeter-wave (mm-wave) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10605125/ |
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