An interference-robust receiver for ultra-wideband radio in SiGe BiCMOS technology

A 3.1-4.8 GHz ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver front-end for high data rate, short-range communication is presented. The receiver, based on the Multi Band OFDM Alliance (MBOA) standard proposal, consists of a zero-IF receive chain and an ultra-fast frequency-hopping synthesizer. The combination of high-linearity RF circuits, aggressive baseband filtering and low local oscillator spurs from the synthesizer results in an interference-robust receiver, having the ability to co-exist with systems operating in the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz ISM bands. The packaged device shows an overall noise figure of 4.5 dB and has a measured input IP3 of -6 dBm and input IP2 of +25 dBm. Spurious tones generated by the synthesizer are below -45 dBc and -50 dBc in the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz ISM bands, respectively. The hopping speed is well below the required 9.5 ns. The complete receive chain has been realized in a 0.25 μm BiCMOS technology and draws 78mA from a 2.5-V supply.