An Integrated Configurable FMCW Radar Baseband SoC in 40-nm CMOS

Abstract

This brief introduces an integrated configurable frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar baseband SoC, which integrates a baseband accelerator in 40-nm CMOS technology. This brief exhibits notable advantages in terms of miniaturization, configurability, and real-time performance. To enhance the real-time performance of baseband signal processing, the baseband accelerator employs a pipeline architecture that incorporates specifically designed parallel computation structures for each submodule. Furthermore, this design enables the accelerator to support diverse application scenarios by offering configurable dimensions for fast Fourier transform (FFT), constant false alarm rate (CFAR), and digital beamforming (DBF), along with adjustable parameters for time-frequency domain processing. Board-level testing results indicate that the chip can accurately distinguish targets with varying distances, speeds, and angles. Operating at a system clock frequency of 200 MHz, the processor achieves a frame processing time of 2.79 ms and a power consumption of 492 mW, under the maximum CFAR window configuration and 256 targets.