A 7.5mA 500 MHz UWB receiver based on super-regenerative principle

Low power impulse radio-ultra wide band(IRUWB) receivers have potential application in the area of wireless sensor networks. In this paper the possibility of super-regenerative receivers for pulse detection is demonstrated. The super-regenerative receiver is implemented in a 0.18 mum CMOS process for a 500 MHz bandwidth (-3 dB) centered at 3.8 GHz. The receiver is operating at 1.5 V and consumes a peak current of 7.5 mA. The receiver shows a 16.5 mV amplitude difference between the presence and absence of a pulse at an average received power of -91.3 dBm at a pulse repetition rate of 1 MHz.