Design of a superregenerative receiver for solar powered applications

The design of an inexpensive superregenerative radio receiver suitable for battery or solar powered operation in remote control applications where traditional sources of power are unavailable is discussed. Power consumption is held to a minimum without sacrificing receiver sensitivity by providing minimal biasing to discrete devices and by utilizing low power CMOS integrated circuits wherever practical. Supply current varies from a minimum value of 0.8 mA to a maximum value of 1.8 mA over the supply voltage range of 4.0 to 5.4 V. Power consumption at the nominal battery voltage of 4.8 V is less than seven mW, with a current of 1.4 mA. Receiver sensitivity, when defined as the minimum modulated source voltage required to produce a reliable demodulated digital output signal, is a consistent 1 μV over the supply voltage range. Receiver bandwidth at the minimum signal level of 1 μV is 700 kHz. Bandwidth increases to 2.0 MHz for a 10 μV input signal