K-Band FMCW Radar Transceiver with a Reconfigurable Analog Baseband for Breast Cancer Detection on Large Tissue Spread

This paper presents a highly integrated, digitally reconfigurable K-band transceiver suitable for cancer detection in a large diversity of breast tissues. First, we present a thorough system level analysis on how the statistical spread of breast density and water content affects radar system parameters. Then, we discuss how an FMCW radar with a reconfigurable analog baseband (ABB) can be used to ensure that the hardware can cover a large variety of breast tissues. Based on these considerations, we analyze some key specifications. Next, we present a highly integrated FMCW transceiver operating from 18–26 GHz that can provide sufficient gain and corner frequency variability to support tumor detection over various types of tissues. The chip integrates a TX, an I/Q RX with programmable ABB and an 8-bit SAR ADC with an SPI interface, which is used for configuration and data readout. The gain of the receiver can be varied in 16 steps between 15-75dB, while the transmitter achieves a maximum output power of 12.5 dBm. Measured receiver DSB noise figure including ABB is 6.7 dB at 19.5 GHz. The supply voltage is 1.5 V. The I/Q RX channel draws 30 mA and the TX channel 45 mA. The chip size including pads is 2150 $\mu$mx 1448 $\mu$m.