Terahertz Digital Chess-Board-Modulated Spread-Spectrum System for Radar and Communication Comprising 200 GHz Bandwidth

TIEMPO提出了一种用于扩频数字噪声雷达的I/Q收发器芯片组的实现，其工作频率范围为220 GHz至420 GHz。这相当于200 GHz的创纪录带宽。在这个项目中，我们创新的调频连续波（FMCW）梳状雷达的想法，提出了一个概念，可以被看作是一个数字雷达对应的频率梳状雷达。为了实现极宽的带宽，我们提出了一种新的系统架构，实现了“棋盘频谱划分”。得益于出色的系统级解决方案，固定频率的单个振荡器足以产生五个本振（LO）载波频率，以覆盖整个带宽。此外，由于高速I/Q混合信号组件与“棋盘”概念的结合，我们将所需的发送/接收通道数量减少了两个。这种结构也可用于通信系统，因为数字序列是在外部产生的，这种极宽的带宽对电路设计提出了挑战，这是本方案的主要重点：（1）具有8位分辨率、20 GHz带宽和40 Gbps数据速率的I/Q数据转换器;（3）LO信号生成，覆盖整个带宽;（4）片上天线，带宽200 GHz，效率高。这些操作频率非常接近或高于用于实验验证的技术的fmax，该技术是Globalfoundries的22 nm FD-SOI（全耗尽绝缘体上硅）CMOS工艺。这需要新颖的电路和系统级方法来规避技术限制。据我们所知，这是在该频率范围内提出的第一个数字扩频雷达收发机概念，也是第一个在200 GHz带宽上工作的概念。

TIEMPO proposes the realization of an I/Q transceiver chipset for spread-spectrum digital noise radar operating in the frequency range from 220 GHz to 420 GHz. This corresponds to a record bandwidth of 200 GHz. In this project we innovate on the idea of the frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) comb radar, by proposing a concept that can be viewed as a digital radar counterpart to a frequency comb radar. To achieve the extremely wide bandwidth we propose a novel system architecture implementing a “chess-board spectrum division”. Thanks to an elegant system level solution, a single oscillator at a fixed frequency is sufficient to generate five local oscillator (LO) carrier frequencies to cover the entire bandwidth. Furthermore, due to the high-speed I/Q mixed-signal components in combination with the “chess-board” concept, we reduce the number of required transmit/receive channels by two. This architecture can also be used for communication systems, as the digital sequence is generated externally.This extremely wide bandwidth imposes difficult challenges at the circuit design level, which is the main focus of this proposal: (1) I/Q data converters with 8-bit resolution, 20 GHz bandwidth, and 40 Gbps data-rate; (2) I/Q transmitter and receiver operating above 400 GHz; (3) LO signal generation to cover the entire bandwidth; (4) on-chip antennas with 200 GHz bandwidth and high efficiency. These operation frequencies are very close or above fmax of the technology intended for experimental validation, which is the 22 nm FD-SOI (Fully-Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator) CMOS process of Globalfoundries. This requires novel circuit and system level approaches to circumvent technology limitations. To our knowledge, this is the first digital spread-spectrum radar transceiver concept proposed in this frequency range, and the first operating over a bandwidth of 200 GHz.