A 3.54 nJ/bit-RX, 0.671 nJ/bit-TX burst mode super-regenerative UWB transceiver in 0.18- μm CMOS

Abstract

Non-coherent ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver employing energy detector suffers from degradation in output SNR due to the squarer. A burst mode super-regenerative UWB transceiver which can recover the received signal to rail-to-rail with relatively fewer post-amplification stages is proposed. Unlike other super-regenerative receiver architectures that use oscillator, the proposed architecture employs a positive feedback loop to achieve the super-regeneration of received signal and thus eliminates the need for external resonator or quench signal. The transceiver is suitable for low data rate sensor networks application covering spectrum of 3-5 GHz. Manufactured in CMOS 0.18-μm technology, the transceiver occupies an area of 2.2 mm × 2 mm. By exploiting the duty cycle and the transceiver on-time through the burst mode operation for a given data rate of 1 Mbps, it can achieve transmitter energy efficiency of 0.671 nJ/bit and receiver energy efficiency of 3.54 nJ/bit.