By Rasmus Schandorph Michaelsen
In high precision Doppler radars, as those produced by Weibel Scientific A/S, the limiting factor for precision is the noise contribution. As these systems get bigger and more complex requiring several receivers in a phased array, miniaturization and mass production capability will be required. Microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) technology has these properties.
The goal of the project is to construct a custom receiver front-end MMIC, which should consist of LNA, splitters and dual I/Q mixers with different LO frequencies. All of these elements should be designed to have an extremely low noise contribution. The main research focus will be on the noise contribution from the different elements of the front-end, especially the 1/f noise from the mixer. Intensive research into noise contributing elements and how to mitigate those is a key element of the project.
Completed: 2016