Highly flexible cognitive radio spectrum sensing front-end

Cognitive radio radio networks employing distributed spectrum sensing techniques will need inexpensive, highly compact spectrum sensing front-ends. This paper presents a highly compact approach utilizing three custom radio-frequency integrated circuits realized in a 0.25 μm Si/SiGe:C BiCMOS technology, replacing a larger number of off-the-shelf components more commonly used. It provides more than 24 dB gain and achieves an IIP₃ of -9 dBm. An overall bandwidth of 2 GHz can be sensed in segments of up to 200 MHz. In combination with a Virtex 6 FPGA, reliable spectrum sensing in different realistic scenarios is finally demonstrated.