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

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。相控阵系统可以快速电子扫描波束，但需要许多电路的复杂集成，包括许多昂贵的基于固态、MEMS或铁氧体的移相器、控制线和配电网络。由此产生的系统复杂、笨重，而且损失很大。电子扫描相控阵天线的关键部件之一是移相器。它通常占相控阵天线制造成本的很大一部分，移相器的成本几乎占整个电子扫描阵列成本的一半，这种情况并不少见。这一过高的成本限制了电子扫描天线的部署，并将其用于昂贵的专门系统，如军用雷达和某些商业系统，如蜂窝电话基站。相控阵系统成本的任何大幅降低都将使其在商业领域得到更广泛的部署。针对上述技术需求，我们建议开发简单、低成本的毫米波相控阵电路结构，以降低复杂性和成本。拟议研究的更广泛影响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，建造道路用雷达在技术上是可行的，但如上所述，核心问题是如何以制造复杂相控阵雷达所需成本的极小一部分制造一台雷达。毫米波自适应巡航控制系统现在只在豪华车型上有选择，比如梅赛德斯-S级和捷豹XKE。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，2000年美国有4.2万人死于车祸。那一年的受伤人数达到了300万人。这些坠机事件中有九起是人为错误造成的。通过1998年的智能汽车倡议，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。在识别的八个区域中，有四个是基于各种防撞传感器的。事实上，防撞雷达的广泛应用将大大改善道路安全。这些电路最终将在课堂教学中教授，以帮助学生更好地了解分布式网络中多个可调电路组件的相互作用，从而获得更多附加功能。许多商用系统可以从低成本相控阵中受益。研究成果的传播将基于期刊出版物、会议/讲习班演示文稿以及UOM辐射和固态实验室的双周研讨会，本科生和本科生都参加了研讨会。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·帕克项目吸引代表性不足的学生，这些项目专门为本科生和研究生、女性学生和少数族裔学生提供研究经验。目前，在密歇根大学玛丽亚·萨拉·帕克项目下，PI雇用了一名女本科生。这个项目研究的是一种新型的电路，它将射频功率分配和移相器结合成一个整体。该研究有望对低成本、简单、高效的相控阵天线网络的设计产生重要影响。这种电路的其他应用包括用于设计多功能收发机的微波和毫米波频率的可调谐滤波器。这些系统在电子通信的各个领域都有应用，包括智能天线、雷达、移动多媒体服务、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.