Three dimensional integrated automotive radars and methods of manufacturing the same

• US 7,733,265 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2008
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Yonak, Serdar Hakki, Margomenos, Alexandros
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory; Bernarr E
• Application Number:
  US12/098,283
• Publication Number:
  US 20090251362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 342/27, 342/28, 342 70- 72, 342/82, 342 89-103, 342/118, 342128-133, 342/175, 342192-197, 342/59, 342/188, 342361-377, 343/700.MS, 343711-717, 343/872, 343/873, 343/700.R, 343/793, 343/810, 343/812, 343/815, 343/817, 343/818, 343833-840, 701/300, 701/301
• US Class Current: 342/70
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S13/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9321 Velocity regulation, e.g. cruise control
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/032 Constructional details for solid-state radar subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/2813 Means providing a modification of the radiation pattern for cancelling noise, clutter or interfering signals, e.g. side lobe suppression, side lobe blanking, null-steering arrays specially adapted to secondary radar systems G01S13/762; aerials or aerials systems H01Q21/29, H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48227 connecting the wire to a bond pad of the item
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/15192 Resurf arrangement of the internal vias
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/15311 being a ball array, e.g. BGA
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/30107 Inductance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3025 Electromagnetic shielding

Abstract

The invention is a low-cost, compact radar for adaptively forming beams and independently steering the beams to improve the noise and sensitivity of the radar. The radar includes a printed circuit board, a low-cost multi-layer organic substrate, and a three dimensional (3D) radio frequency (RF) front end that is flood mounted on the substrate.

Claims

1. An automotive radar comprising:

a printed circuit board having a digital signal processor mounted thereon; and

a multi-layer substrate mounted on the printed circuit board, the multi-layer substrate having a plurality of antennas and a transmit/receive module directly connected to the plurality of antennas, wherein the transmit/receive module receives signals from the digital signal processor and uses the signals to form a plurality of beams that are transmitted using the plurality of antennas.

2. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the multi-layer substrate is selected from a group consisting of a liquid crystal polymer, a low temperature cofired ceramic, a Parylene-N dielectric, a PTFE ceramic, and a PTFE glass fiber material.

3. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas and the transmit/receive module are part of the multi-layer substrate.

4. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of antennas is a waveguide horn made out of a metallized plastic.

5. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein at least one of the plurality of antennas is a dual polarization antenna.

6. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the plurality of antennas are a planar microstrip antenna array fed through a microstrip distribution network.

7. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a thermal via attached to the transmit/receive module for removing heat from the transmit/receive module.

8. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a micro-machined plastic mounted over the transmit/receive module.

9. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the transmit/receive module is a transmitter and a receiver.

10. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the transmit/receive module includes a plurality of transmit/receive chips where each chip is connected to at least one of the plurality of antennas.

11. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a variable gain amplifier to modify beams from the plurality of antennas.

12. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a phase shifter to scan an antenna beam by adding a progressive phase delay.

13. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising an analog-to-digital converter to digitize the signals and to create multiple independent beams that can be steered to track multiple targets.

14. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the transmit/receive module generates and receives at least two orthogonal polarizations.

15. The automotive radar of claim 14 further comprising a voltage controlled oscillator integrated on the SiGe BiCMOS chip and ground vias and split grounding planes to isolate noise created by the voltage controlled oscillator.

16. The automotive radar of claim 1 wherein the transmit/receive module is selected from a group consisting of a SiGe BiCMOS chip and an all silicon CMOS chip.

17. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a voltage controlled oscillator chip encapsulated into a metallized housing made out of an organic substrate to shield noise.

18. The automotive radar of claim 1 further comprising a corrective lens or a metamaterials lens positioned on the plurality of antennas to reduce side lobe levels.

19. An automotive radar comprising:

a printed circuit board having an analog-to-digital converter; and

a multi-layer substrate mounted on the printed circuit board, the multi-layer substrate having microstrip patch antennas that receive and transmit beams, a transmit/receive chip connected to the microstrip patch antennas and the analog-to-digital converter, and a phase shifter connected to the analog-to-digital converter to add phase delay to the beams.

20. An automotive radar comprising:

a printed circuit board;

a multi-layer substrate mounted on the printed circuit board, the multi-layer substrate having a plurality of antennas and a SiGe BiCMOS chip directly connected to the plurality of antennas, wherein the SiGe BiCMOS chip is configured to achieve adaptive beam control and beam steering of the plurality of antennas;

a micro-machined plastic mounted over the transmit/receive module; and

a voltage controlled oscillator integrated on the SiGe BiCMOS chip and ground vias and split grounding planes to isolate noise created by the voltage controlled oscillator.

21. The automotive radar of claim 20 wherein the micro-machined plastic is a metallized plastic for creating a plurality of passive components, and wherein the plurality of passive components is selected from a group consisting of a waveguide distribution network, a filter, a diplexer, a resonator, a coupler, and combinations thereof.