A Short-Range Low Data-Rate Regenerative FM-UWB Receiver

A regenerative frequency-modulated ultra-wideband (FM-UWB) receiver for low data rate (<; 100 kbits/s) and short-distance ( <;10 m) reception in the 4-5-GHz band, consisting of a 35-dB gain preamplifier, envelope detector/demodulator, IF amplifier, and 50-Ω test buffer is described. The tunable (3.8-5.1 GHz) receiver front-end operates on a 50-MHz sub-band that is selected, amplified, and transformed from FM to amplitude modulated by a regenerative preamplifier. Energy efficiency of the regenerative FM-UWB receiver compared to previously published FM-UWB implementations is improved by a factor of 8, to 22 nJ/bit. Measured receiver sensitivity is -84 dBm at 100-kbits/s data rate (10^-3 bit-error rate). Implemented in 65-nm bulk CMOS, the 0.3 mm² test chip consumes 2.2 mW (excluding test buffer) from a 1-V supply.