THz-Workshop: Millimeter- and

Sub-Millimeter-Wave circuit

design and characterization

26 September 2014, Venice

From Research to Industry:

Highly integrated mm-wave transceiver for

automotive radar applications

Erich Kolmhofer

DICE GmbH

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

2

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

3

Why Automotive Radar?

● In Europe each year about 1.3

million traffic accidents cause: ● More than 40.000 fatalities

● Economic damage of more than 200 billion € per year

● Human error is involved in over 90%

of accidents

● Automotive radar help drivers to ● Maintain a safe speed

● Keep a safe distance

● Avoid overtaking in critical situations

● Safely pass intersections

● Avoid crashes with vulnerable road user

● Reduce severity of an accident

● Drive more efficiently

4

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear-end_collision#mediaviewer/File:Car_accident_-_NSE_Malaysia.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:401_Gridlock.jpg

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/policy_link/brochures/documents/intelligent_car.pdf

FMCW Principle of Typical Automotive Radars

5

Radar Application

transmitted signal reflected signal

Signal Processing

Radar Front-End

The Safety Market - EuroNCAP is a strong driver

● EU - OEMs consider 5 Stars a MUST and add required technology to new platforms

● From 2016 onwards 5-Stars is not possible without radar/camera

● Radar/Camera combination standard equipment for EU cars

● Other regions expected to follow the EU with several years delay (e.g. Korea in 2016)

● From 2018 e.g. bicyclist protection is expected raise the bar further

6

2014 2012 2016

AEB city

AEB interurban + (LDW)

Pedestrian protection Passive

AEB pedestrian

Occupant Protection Passive

Mandatory for 5*

Safety support

2018

Bicyclist/VRU* protection passive

tbd

VRU = vulnerable road user

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

7

Why BiCMOS? System Partitioning!

● Optimum technologies for RF / analog /

mixed signal and digital functions

● High performance SiGe (fmax=400 GHz) for

lowest power consumption, phase noise,

highest linearity and output power

● High performance MC can utilize most

advanced digital CMOS

● Optimized and stable RF/AMS section for

use with scalable MC solution

● Optimized cost / performance trade-off

8

Synchro

nous

Multic

nannels

TR

X

FM

CW

IF-P

repro

cessin

g

AD

C

Fre

quency

Contr

olli

ng

Monitorin

g

SiGe BiCMOS

DS

P / F

FT

/ O

bje

ct

list / tr

ackin

g

Mem

ory

Contr

olle

r

Dig. CMOS

Synchro

nous

Multic

nannels

TR

X

FM

CW

IF-P

repro

cessin

g

AD

C

Fre

quency

Contr

olli

ng

Monitorin

g

DS

P / F

FT

/ O

bje

ct

list / tr

ackin

g

Mem

ory

Contr

olle

r

Dig. CMOS

● Inferior performance of RF/AMS section if

implemented in advanced digital CMOS

● MC would always lack behind state-of-the-

art as development cycles with RF/AMS

included take much longer time

● Waste of expensive CMOS area for non-

shrinkable analog functions

● Up-scaling to higher channel count by

employment of multiple single chip units not

cost-efficient (redundant MCs) or even not

possible

Why BiCMOS? Technology Advantages!

● Rule of thumb: fmax ≥ 3 x fop (e.g. to enable

good noise behavior of LNAs)

● fop = 80 GHz → fmax = 250 GHz

● SiGe 0.3µm (IFX B7HF200) compareable to 40nm

CMOS

● To cope with fmax drop over temperature

and to achieve required design margins,

and lower power consumption:

fmax ≥ 5 x fop

● fop = 80 GHz → fmax = 400 GHz is desireable

● Performance of 0.13µm SiGe (next generation IFX

B11HFC) superior to 28nm CMOS

9

Why BiCMOS? Economy!

● Relative cost for analog RF circuit portion increase over CMOS nodes, as Silicon area

needed for analog parts does not shrink

● Even if 40mio radar chipsets (SMR/LR) are manufactured in 2019 (s. Strategy Analytics,

2012) this will only result in 250 CMOS wafer starts per week (wspw) worldwide (300mm).

If such volume is shared between different suppliers, there is not enough volume to do

proper yield learning.

10

SMR/LR

AFE

SMR/LR

MC

USR 2nd opt.

DOT7 BiCMOS Approach by Infineon

● B7HF200 is qualified for automotive applications and in production since 2009

● C11N is qualified for automotive applications and in production since 2004

11

● B11HFC (130 nm / 400 GHz) SiGe BiCMOS is a combination of new SiGe HBT devices,

a standard 130 nm CMOS process (C11N) and the mmWave metal back end of line and

passives from proven IFX B7HF200 technology

new HBT devices proven C11

proven metalization

and passives

+ +

B11HFC Technology =

400GHz Bipolar plus CMOS

12

● Higher RF integration + higher fmax ● More TX & Rx channels / chip

● 400GHz fmax → lower power consumption

● Higher logic content ● Integrated frequency control and stabilization

● Self test / self calibration

● Monitoring and functional safety functions during

operation

● IF preprocessing / digital interfaces

● Significantly easier volume assembly with eWLB

package ● First 77GHz package on the market

● Less expensive PCB (no cavity)

● Assembly on standard SMD lines

Progress Enabled by Funding Projects

13

Radar from SiGe → BiCMOS → (Bi)CMOS

2021 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

B7HF200

Bipolar 200GHz

SOP2008

B11HFC

BiCMOS 400GHz

200GHz

400GHz + logic

Source: Infineon, 2013

Next gen

(Bi)CMOS 700GHz

700GHz + logic SOP2018

SOP2028

~2x

~2x

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

14

Typical 77GHz Radar System Partitioning

15

RTN7735PL TX

RRN7745PL RX

VCO stabilization/ Linearization PLL, TX control, …

IF amp.

& filter

ADC ASIC

µC

IF2

IF1

IF3

IF4

BB2

BB1

BB3

BB4 Y

Y

Y

Y

RX2

RX1

RX3

RX4

Y

Y TX1

TX2

TX3 as LO

Vtune DIV32

Targ

et

Infineon RASICTM components 3d party components

RCC1010

µC

77GHz BiCMOS Radar System Partitioning

16

RTN7735PL TX

RRN7745PL RX

VCO stabilization/ Linearization PLL, TX control, …

IF amp.

& filter

ADC ASIC

IF2

IF1

IF3

IF4

BB2

BB1

BB3

BB4 Y

Y

Y

Y

RX2

RX1

RX3

RX4

Y

Y TX1

TX2

TX3 as LO

Vtune DIV32

Targ

et

RCC1010

Transceiver MMIC

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

17

Functional Monitoring Today

● Today functional monitoring is

supported by integrated monitoring

blocks ● Receiver test signal generators

● TX/PA output level monitors

● TX frequency counters

● …

● Monitoring cycles have to be initiated

by the system controller

● Components are monitored

individually but not in their interaction

● Assessment of the monitoring signals

and evaluation of system health has to

be done by the system signal

processing

18

RX-MMIC

90°

Test-

generator

LO

-In

Test-

In

RF-In

IF-O

ut

AD

µCRX OK?

Functional Monitoring for BiCMOS Based Systems

● By introducing suitable signal path the

complete TRX chain can be monitored

● Sequencing is done internally → also

monitoring cycles are done

autonomously

● Thru integrated signal processing the

health check for the TRX subsystem is

done MMIC-internally and signaled to the

system controller

19

Contents

● Why Automotive Radar?

● Infineon B11HFC Technology

● System Partitioning Bipolar vs. BiCMOS

● Functional Safety

● Conclusion

20

Conclusion

● Automotive radar (and other assistance) systems can significantly

contribute to road safety ● Public pressure (NCAP) will drive the market

● For the next years BiCMOS will be the optimum technology from

technical and economical point of view

● Nevertheless pure CMOS might get the technology in upcoming years

● Automotive radar MMICs are still niche products ● Technology progress and market penetration greatly profit from funding projects

● Higher integration levels will be required to reduce bill of material and

manufacturing cost

● Compliance with automotive functional safety standards is obligatory ● Higher integration levels also allow extended functional monitoring features

21

Acknowledgement

● This work is part of the:

● DOTSEVEN project supported by the European Commission through the Seventh

Framework Program for Research and Technological Development

22