Novel Circuits for the Design of Low Cost Millimeter Wave Phased Arrays

0457543 Mortazawi电子扫描天线在商业和军事领域都有广泛的应用，包括先进的雷达、蜂窝基站、卫星通信和汽车防撞雷达。相控阵系统可以以快速的速率电子扫描波束，但需要许多电路的复杂集成，包括许多昂贵的固态、MEMS或基于铁氧体的移相器、控制线和配电网络。 由此产生的系统是复杂的、庞大的并且具有高损耗。 电子扫描相控阵天线的关键元件之一是移相器。它通常对生产相控阵列天线的成本有显著贡献，并且移相器的成本几乎占整个电子扫描阵列成本的一半并不罕见。 这种过高的成本限制了电子扫描天线的部署，并限制了它们在昂贵的专用系统中的使用，例如军用雷达和某些商用系统，例如蜂窝电话基站。 相控阵系统成本的任何实质性降低都将允许它们在商业竞技场中更广泛地部署。 针对上述技术需求，我们提出开发简单且低成本的电路架构，以降低复杂度和成本来设计毫米波相控阵。可以利用低成本毫米波相控阵的一个重要应用是汽车防撞雷达或自适应巡航控制技术。 多年来，建造公路用雷达在技术上是可行的，但正如所提到的，核心问题是如何以通常制造复杂相控阵雷达所涉及的成本的一小部分制造雷达。 毫米波自适应巡航控制系统现在仅适用于豪华车型，如梅赛德斯S级和捷豹XKE。面临的挑战是降低这些系统的成本/复杂性，以便它们能够进入普通汽车。 根据美国交通部的报告，在2000年期间，美国有42，000人死于车祸。这一年的受伤人数达到了300万。这些事故中有十分之九是由人为错误造成的。 通过1998年的智能车辆倡议，美国交通部确定了智能系统可以“改善”或“影响”安全的八个领域。 在确定的八个区域中，有四个是基于各种防撞传感器。实际上，防撞雷达的广泛应用将显著提高道路安全性。 这些电路最终将在课堂教学中教授，以帮助学生更好地理解分布式网络中多个可调电路组件的相互作用，以获得更多的附加功能。许多商业系统可以受益于低成本相控阵列。 研究的传播将基于期刊出版物，会议/研讨会演讲以及UoM的辐射和固态实验室双周研讨会，这些研讨会都是由研究生和本科生参加的。 将特别努力通过密歇根大学UROP（本科生研究机会）和玛丽亚萨拉帕克方案吸引代表性不足的学生，这些方案专门为本科生和研究生女生和少数民族学生提供研究经验。 目前，PI在密歇根大学的玛丽亚萨拉帕克项目下雇用了一名女本科生。 建议研究的智力价值本项目研究一类新的电路，将联合收割机RF功率分配和移相器结合到一个实体中。 该研究对设计低成本、简单高效的相控阵天线网络具有重要意义。 这种电路的其他应用包括微波和毫米波频率的可调谐滤波器，用于多功能收发器的设计。 这些系统应用于电子通信的各个领域，包括智能天线、雷达、移动的多媒体服务、汽车防撞系统和有源高功率滤波器。 此外，由于尺寸、重量和成本的限制，卫星提供的应用也将受益于这些发展。

0457543MortazawiElectronically scanned antennas have broad applications for both commercial and military segments, including advanced radars, cellular base stations, satellite communications, and automotive collision avoidance radars. The phased array systems can scan the beam electronically at a fast rate, but require complex integration of many circuits, including many expensive solid-state, MEMS or ferrite based phase shifters, control lines, and power distribution networks. The resulting systems are complex, bulky and have high losses. One of the critical elements for electronically scanned phased array antennas is a phase shifter. It typically contributes to a significant amount of the cost of producing a phased array antenna and it is not uncommon for the cost of the phase shifters to represent nearly half of the cost of the entire electronically scanned array. This excessive cost has limited the deployment of electronically scanned antennas and restricted their use to expensive and specialized systems, such as military radars and certain commercial systems such as cellular telephone base stations. Any substantial reduction in the cost of phased array systems will allow much wider deployment of them in commercial arena. In response to the above technology needs, we propose to develop simple and low cost circuit architectures for the design of millimeter-wave phased arrays with reduced complexity and cost. Broader Impact of the Proposed Research One important application that can take advantage of low cost millimeter-wave phased arrays is automotive collision avoidance radar or adaptive cruise control technology. Building a radar for road use has been technically feasible for many years however as mentioned the core issue is how to make one for a tiny fraction of the costs usually involved in making complex phased array radars. Millimeter-wave adaptive cruise control is now an option only on luxury models, such as the Mercedes S-class and Jaguar XKE. The challenge is to reduce the cost/complexity of these systems so that they find their way into ordinary cars. Based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's report, during the year 2000 in the United States, 42,000 deaths were reported due to car crashes. The number of injuries that year reached 3 million. Nine out of ten of those crashes were caused through human error. Through the 1998 Intelligent Vehicle Initiative, the U.S. Department of Transportation identified eight areas where intelligent systems could "improve" or "impact" safety. Among the eight identified areas, four are based on various collision avoidance sensors. Indeed broad application of collision avoidance radars will significantly improve the road safety. These circuits will eventually be taught in class room teaching to help students better understand the interaction of multiple tunable circuit components in a distributed network for much added functionality. Many commercial systems can benefit from low cost phased arrays. The dissemination of research will be based on journal publications, conference/workshop presentations will and the Radiation and Solid-State Laboratories biweekly seminars at UoM that are well attended by both graduate as well as undergraduates. Special effort will be placed in attracting underrepresented students through the University of Michigan UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities) and Maria Sara Parker Programs specifically designed to provide research experiences to undergraduate and graduate female and minority students. Currently PI employs one female undergraduate under Maria Sara Parker Program at UoM. Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Research This project investigates a new class of circuits that combine RF power distribution and phase shifters into one entity. The proposed research is expected to have a significant impact on the design of low cost, simple and efficient networks for the design of phased array antennas. Other applications of such circuits include tunable filters at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies for the design of multifunction transceivers. These systems have applications in various areas of electronic communications including smart antennas, radars, mobile multimedia services, automotive collision avoidance systems and active high power filters. Furthermore applications provided by satellites will also benefit from these developments due to the limitations on size, weight and cost.