Design and Performance Characterization of PLL-Based Chirp Generators for FMCW Radar Applications

Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar sensors are widely used in applications such as automotive radar, indoor localization, industrial sensing, and imaging. At the heart of these sensors lies the chirp synthesizer, which is typically implemented using a Phase-Locked Loop (PLL). Radar performance depends on the linearity and phase noise characteristics of the synthesized local oscillator (LO). This talk begins with an overview of the requirements for chirp generation, followed by a discussion of PLL-based LO synthesis architectures for FMCW radar. A comparison of key PLL building blocks used in chirp synthesis will be presented, along with the latest techniques for achieving highly linear and phase noise optimized LO generation. The talk concludes with a method for characterizing the chirp and highlighting its impact on overall radar system performance.