Prof. Vadim Issakov of Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany

https://mtt.org/profile/vadim-issakov/

There is a growing interest in realization of highly-integrated radar transceivers operating at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies. The need for high-level integration is driven by the motivation for the products to be competitive on the market, this means implementing more features, offer high digital reconfigurability and enhanced RF functionality, consume a minimal chip area, dissipate less power and achieve a lower price. The trend in integrated mm-wave radar systems goes towards using increasingly higher operating frequencies. Frequencies above 100 GHz are very attractive for realizing multi-channel radar systems, due to possibility of module size reduction thanks to scaling of the antennas.

This talk focusses on system and circuit design considerations for highly-integrated radar transceivers in CMOS and SiGe HBT technologies. The speaker will first provide motivation for realization of radar sensors at mm-wave frequencies by showing the possible applications. Then, frequency band allocations for radar at mm-wave frequencies are discussed. Next, speaker will discuss system level consideration in detail and will present step-by-step system design steps for an integrated fast-chirp FMCW radar transceiver, such as level budget calculation, phase noise considerations, PLL linearity, design of the analog baseband. The system considerations will be systematically translated into specifications of circuit blocks (e.g. LNA, mixer, PA, VCO, analog baseband etc.) of the radar transceiver. Additionally, digital modulation techniques such as phase-modulated continuous-wave (PMCW) will be discussed and a systematic comparison with FMCW will be given. Next, technology-dependent considerations and challenges related to critical building blocks are discussed (e.g. phase noise, noise figure, operating frequency, routing density, digital baseband). Then, the speaker will present several design examples of integrated radar transceivers operating at V-band and D-band and will discuss the circuit architectures. The talk is rounded out by a vision on novel modulation techniques and trends in MIMO radar array realizations.

Biography:

https://www.tu-braunschweig.de/cmos/team/professoren/vadim-issakov/

Prof. Vadim Issakov (Senior Member, IEEE) received the M.Sc. degree in microwave engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree (summa cum laude) from the University of Paderborn, Germany, in 2010. In March 2010, he joined Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany. Afterward, he was with imec, Leuven, Belgium, and Intel Corporation, before he came back to Infineon Technologies AG, in August 2015, he was the Millimeter-Wave (mm-wave) Design Lead and a Principal Engineer leading a research group working on predevelopment of mm-wave radar and communication products. Since 2014, he has been a Guest Lecturer with Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, and the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen–Nuremberg, Germany. In September 2019, he joined the University of Magdeburg, Germany, as a Full Professor holding the Chair of Electronics. Since April 2021, he has been a Full Professor with the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. He has authored or co-authored over 125 peer-reviewed articles and one book. He holds 11 patents. His research interests include mm-wave circuits, RF systems, mm-wave measurement techniques, and RF-ESD. He was a recipient of the 2010 University of Paderborn Best Dissertation Award, the 2011 VDI/VDE Distinguished Dissertation Award, and the 2019 IEEE MTT Outstanding Young Engineer Award. He serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES and IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS. He also serves on the technical program committees for RFIC and BCICTS. He is also the Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technique Society, in 2023 and 2025.