Abstract:

The development of millimeter-wave (30-300 GHz) sensors and communications systems has a long history of interest, spanning back almost six decades. In particular, mm-wave radars have applications as automotive radars, in remote atmospheric sensing applications, as landing radars for air and spacecraft, and for high precision imaging applications. Mm-wave radar systems have high angular accuracy and range resolution, and, while susceptible to atmospheric attenuation, are less susceptible to optically opaque conditions, such as smoke or dust.

This presentation will present the initial steps towards a new approach to the creation of a mm-wave radar system at 94 GHz. Specifically, the design, fabrication and testing of various components of a highly integrated 94 Ghz monopulse radar transmitter/receiver. Several architectural approaches are considered, including passive and active implementations of RF monopulse comparator networks. These architectures are enabled by a high-performance three-dimensional rectangular coaxial microwave transmission line technology known as PolyStrata® as well as silicon-based IC technologies. A number of specific components are examined in detail, including: a 2x2 PolyStrata antenna array, a passive monopulse comparator network, a 94 GHz SiGe two-port active comparator MMIC, and a 24 GHz RF-CMOS 4-port active monopulse comparator IC.

Speaker:  

Dr. Marcus Oliver is the Lead Microwave Design Engineer for Nuvotronics, LLC in Radford, VA since March 2012.  Dr. Oliver is a recent graduate with a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in spring 2012.  He was a member of the Wireless Microsystems Lab while under Dr. Raman during his tenure at Virginia Tech.

His Ph.D work was on the mm-wave monopulse radar systems covered in this presentation.  During his graduate work, Dr. Oliver was also employed by Nuvotronics, LLC in various capacities, developing passive microwave structures in PolyStrata®. Dr. Oliver’s research interests include passive and active microwave\mm-wave design, mm-wave components, MEMs and NEMs, microwave packaging, radar systems, and phased arrays.