Scalable Miniature THz Radar for Industrial Applications

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Zwick
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440918997

The past few years have witnessed a tremendous progress in the semiconductor technology, which has increased the threshold frequency beyond 300 GHz for silicon-based technologies and up to 1 THz for III-V semiconductor technologies. As a result, the level of integration in electronic circuits is achieving new heights at frequencies above 100 GHz. The benefits of operating at such high frequencies are twofold. On one hand, a large bandwidth is available by virtue of relaxed frequency regulations and on the other hand, a small wavelength enables integration of antennas either on the chip or in the chip-package. Therefore, ultra-compact radar sensors with an unprecedented resolution can be realized. However, the bottleneck lies in the highly-complex packaging and interconnection technology required for developing such sensors above 100 GHz. Since long, this has been a limiting factor in realizing cost-effective fully-integrated modules.In transfer project SATIRE, both the package variants from the DFG project Real100G.RF will be integrated with Fraunhofer IAF‘s electronic circuits into a scalable, miniature-sized radar frontend. Additionally, the industrial application of the radar frontend will be evaluated in cooperation with the company VEGA. In order to achieve a resolution in the millimeter-range, the operating bandwidth of the electronic circuit should be at least 50 GHz. Additionally, the transmitter should be switchable for enabling TDM-MIMO operation (TDM: Time Division Multiplex, MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output). The antenna design will be optimized such that the GaAs MMIC can be directly mounted on a lens, whose dielectric constant lies in the vicinity of GaAs. For this purpose, lenses made of ceramic and plastic materials with dielectric constant similar to GaAs, will be tested. These lenses will be compatible with 3D printing and injection molding process. The complete module will be as large as the lens itself, i.e. a maximum size of 10 mm. The proposed architecture consisting of multipliers, an external local oscillator (LO) and a switchable transmitter, enables simultaneous operation of multiple radar frontends on a single printed circuit board; thus realizing a MIMO radar. Further, the concepts of frequency multiplication and encapsulation in a module lead to a cost effective 300 GHz radar frontend for industrial applications, which can be integrated in standard printed circuit board technology. A great commercial potential is foreseen in the exploitation of the new frequency range for sensor systems. The aim is to develop a multi-faceted radar frontend, which can be scaled according to the requirements of different systems. Further, the radar frontend is mainly targeted for industrial applications, since it is intended to serve a large number of applications with low to medium number of systems. Consequently, the only possible cost-effective solution is to develop a multi-faceted standard chip including package.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: VEGA Grieshaber KG
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Arnulf Leuther