Package Co-design of a Fully Integrated Multimode 76-81GHz 45nm RFCMOS FMCW Automotive Radar Transceiver

The successful implementation, adoption, and proliferation of mmWave radar sensing technologies, to enabling future ADAS (advanced driver-assisted system) safety features, will require highly-integrated, high performance, and cost-effective packaged SoC (system on chip) solutions. This paper presents the co-design/simulation and measured results of a fully integrated 76-81GHz 45nm RFCMOS automotive transceiver packaged in a 0.65-mm pitch, 161-pin 10.4 mm × 10.4 mm flip chip BGA. Due to the complex process integration and mmWave operational frequency, electromagnetic interactions at system-level (viz. Silicon + Package + PCB) are exacerbated with potential impact to performance and functionality. We detail how package technology selection, via optimization of the package and system, was achieved through a coupled circuit-to-electromagnetic co-design modeling and simulation methodology. Laboratory measurements on TI AWR1243(TM), a fully integrated 76-81GHz FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) automotive transceiver, are presented that validate the integrity of the co-design modeling and simulation methodology.