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Design of a W-band Stepped-frequency Synthesizer with Fast Frequency Switching

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Abstract

In this paper, a W-band coherent stepped-frequency synthesizer is proposed, which provides transmitter and local oscillator signals to a high range resolution radar system. This synthesizer is realized by combining the technique of direct digital synthesizer, phase lock loop, up-conversion and multiplier chain, etc. In order to shorten the lock time of the phase lock loop, a new method is introduced in the design of this synthesizer. Measurement results show that the transmitting signal is around 94 GHz, the bandwidth is 504 MHz, the phase noise is about −90 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset, and the spurious signals are less than −55 dBc. Especially, the frequency switching time of this synthesizer is about 1 μs. With the W-band stepped-frequency synthesizer, the range resolution of the high range resolution radar system is better than 0.6 m.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610054, P.R. China

    Tao Wu, Xiaohong Tang & Fei Xiao

Authors
  1. Tao Wu
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  2. Xiaohong Tang
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  3. Fei Xiao
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Correspondence to Tao Wu.

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Wu, T., Tang, X. & Xiao, F. Design of a W-band Stepped-frequency Synthesizer with Fast Frequency Switching. J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves 30, 826–834 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-009-9517-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-009-9517-3

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