A 33pJ/bit 90nm CMOS UWB single-chip transceiver with embedded multi-gigabit modem

In this paper a low-power multi-gigabit single-chip transceiver is demonstrated in 90 nm CMOS operating in the worldwide allocated 7.2 GHz - 8.5 GHz ultra-wideband frequency spectrum. The transceiver operates as an MB-OFDM compatible front-end as well as a single-carrier modulator/demodulator with an integrated BPSK baseband modem. An embedded pulse shaping filter enables transmission of 2.4 Gbps data while meeting the UWB spectral mask from 7.2 GHz - 10.2 GHz and 1 Gbps in the worldwide-allocated band of 7.2 GHz - 8.5 GHz. The analog bandwidth of the transmitter is greater than 2 GHz in a 7.7 GHz - 8.9 GHz carrier frequency range. The receiver supports up to 2.5 Gbps demodulation with a voltage conversion gain of 48 dB, a 3 dB double-sided bandwidth of around 2.5 GHz, and a noise figure of only 4.5 dB. The transceiver operates at a power budget of less than 33 pJ/bit. To the best of the authors´ knowledge, this demonstrates the maximum throughput at minimum power budget and noise figure among CMOS transceivers operating at higher ultra-wideband frequencies.