Towards a broadband front-end for cooperative spectrum sensing networks

Author

Lohmiller, Peter ; Elsokary, Ahmed ; Schumacher, Hermann ; Chartier, Sebastien

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electron Devices & Circuits, Ulm Univ., Ulm, Germany

fYear

2014

fDate

6-9 Oct. 2014

Firstpage

147

Lastpage

150

Abstract

Cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) avoids hidden terminal problems common to network architectures with central sensing nodes. It also lowers the requirements for the sensing radio front-ends. This paper presents a multi-chip module RF front-end implemented from custom RFICs realized in an 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. Using an up/down-conversion heterodyne architecture, the front-end achieves a conversion gain exceeding 17.2 dB and a frequency range up to 4.5 GHz. The noise figure between 15.4 dB and 19.8 dB and the input referred third order intercept point (IIP3) of -7.5dBm constitute a noise/linearity trade-off and are acceptable for compact distributed sensing nodes. The module draws 150mA from a single 5V supply. It was validated in real-world sensing scenarios, combined with a broadband discone antenna, external local oscillators, and a Virtex 6 FPGA evaluation board.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; broadband antennas; cognitive radio; cooperative communication; field programmable gate arrays; microwave integrated circuits; microwave oscillators; radio spectrum management; semiconductor materials; silicon compounds; BiCMOS technology; CR; IIP3; RFIC; SiGe; Virtex 6 FPGA evaluation board; broadband discone antenna; broadband front-end; central sensing node; cognitive radio; compact distributed sensing node; conversion gain; cooperative spectrum sensing network; current 150 mA; hidden terminal problems avoidance; local oscillator; multichip module RF front-end implementation; noise figure; radio front-end; real-world sensing scenario; size 0.25 mum; third order intercept point; up-down-conversion heterodyne architecture; voltage 5 V; Bandwidth; Gain; Noise; Noise measurement; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; Sensors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2014 44th European

Conference_Location

Rome

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EuMC.2014.6986391

Filename

6986391