Mitsubishi Electric Develops 76 GHz Band mm-wave MMICs for Automobile Radars; Total Chipset Solution by Electronic Beam Scanning for Greater Driving Safety

    TOKYO--June 2, 2003--Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (President and CEO: Tamotsu Nomakuchi) today announced it has developed eight unprecedented, high performance, total MMIC(1) chipset solution models by electronic beam scanning for 76GHz-band mm-wave radars that can help improve driving safety. Mitsubishi Electric plans to utilize their new chipset, which was developed using the highly reliable, high-speed and compact (miniature) electronic scan method, as a stepping stone to actually being outfitted into 76 GHz band mm-wave radars in automobiles. Further details on this will be presented in the United States at the International Microwave Symposium, June 8-13, 2003.
    Recently, mm-wave automobile radars have been developed for improving driving safety. These radars will perform such functions as cruise control by detecting distances and relative speeds of cars running ahead of drivers and take appropriate measures to help reduce damage to the driver when a crash becomes unavoidable. The mm-wave radars have a certain advantage over commonly used laser radars in that regardless of such bad weather conditions as rain, snow, sleet, fog, etc., the scanning function for objects in the lane ahead, remains undiminished. Previous mm-wave radars required mechanical scanning drives to be equipped with them in order to detect or "sense" the front-located objects. For the first time ever Mitsubishi Electric's new development includes a switch MMIC used for the electrical beam scanning. By incorporating this electrical beam scanning method the radars can scan at higher speeds with better reliability in a more compact package compared with previous mechanically driven radars.
    The chipset solution for the automobile radars has been realized based upon GaAs-pHEMT(2) MMIC technology, which over the years Mitsubishi Electric has come to develop for satellite, defense, and commercial uses, starting with applications for the 90GHz-band earth observation satellite. The chipset solution consists of 8 MMIC models as named below:
    1 Antenna three-channel switch MMIC;
    5 Transmitter MMICs: 76GHz-band transmitter power amplifier MMIC, 38/76GHz frequency multiplier MMIC, 38GHz-band power amplifier MMIC, 19/38GHz frequency multiplier MMIC, 19GHz-band power amplifier MMIC;
    2 Receiver MMICs: 76GHz-band receiver mixer MMIC, receiver mixer.
    By combining these it will be possible to construct electronic circuits for various types of mm-wave radars.

(1): Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits

(2): Pseudo-morphic High Electron Mobility Transistor

    There are 3 main features for this chipset solution:

    1. World's 1st 76GHz-band transistor switch MMIC for electrical scanning radars

    A much higher ON/OFF ratio has been achieved using the newly developed mm-wave switch transistors showing the better isolation performance that cannot be achieved by using diode switches. A small insertion loss has also been realized. Instead of diode switches, the transistor switches exhibit extremely low power consumption due to its voltage operation, a strong advantage. As a result, a high performance electrical scanning radar is realized.

    2. High output power transmitter amplifier MMIC

    A 30 mW output power at 76GHz-band has been realized by optimizing the transistor's unit cell structure and the power matching circuit. The output power is 1.5 times larger than the conventional one, and this is a sufficient power even when the antenna switch MMIC is used in front of the transmitter amplifier MMIC.

    3. World's lowest noise performance receiver amplifier MMIC

    The receiver low noise amplifier MMIC exhibits less than the typical 3.5dB noise figure, the world's lowest frequency range value so far. Additionally it demonstrates superb temperature dependence. That is, a maximum 4.5dB noise figure under the wide temperature range of -40 - +100 has been achieved by introducing a circuit designed specifically to reduce temperature dependency. A higher sensitivity of 8dB (approximately 6 times greater than previous levels) has been realized with the low noise amplifier MMIC, thus enabling excellent sensitivity even with the antenna switch MMIC employed at front of low noise amplifier MMIC.

    About Mitsubishi Electric

    With over 80 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and building equipment. The company has operations in 35 countries and recorded consolidated group sales of 3,639 billion yen (US$30.3 billion(a)) in the year ended March 31, 2003. For more information, visit http://global.mitsubishielectric.com

(a) At an exchange rate of 120 yen to the US dollar, the rate given by the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on March 31, 2003.