New superregenerative architectures for direct-sequence spread-spectrum communications

The superregenerative receiver has been used for many decades as a low-cost and low-power receiver in short-range narrow-band communications. In this paper, we present two new architectures that make use of the superregeneration principle to achieve noncoherent detection of direct-sequence spread-spectrum signals. The local pseudorandom code generator is clocked by the quench oscillator, making the quench frequency equal to the chip rate. Under this condition, it is possible to take advantage of the characteristic broad reception bandwidth and the pulsating nature of the receiver to filter and despread the signal. The two superregenerative architectures, operating under periodic and pseudorandom quench, respectively, are analyzed and compared. Theoretical predictions are confirmed by experimental results in the ISM band of 2.4 GHz.