Low noise BiCMOS receiver for FMCW radar positioning systems

In this work we present a fully integrated BiCMOS RF-receiver. The receiver comprises an LNA and a mixer. The most challenging aspects of the design were the high gain and an extremely low noise figure specified by RESOLUTION. The target was to achieve an integrated LNA and mixer showing at least 25 dB voltage conversion gain and overall noise figure less than 4 dB under minimum power consumption. A low IF architecture is requested converting the RF signal between 5.725 GHz and 5.875 GHz to a 500 kHz - 5 MHz IF band. This article is organized as follows: first we will present the details of the circuit design discussing the architecture and design techniques; following this the experimental results of the receiver will be presented and finally, we will discuss the results with respect to the RESOLUTION system specifications.