A Low-Power Multicarrier-CDMA Downlink Baseband Receiver for Future Cellular Communication Systems

In this paper, design and implementation of a baseband receiver integrated circuit (IC) for a downlink multi-carrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system are presented. This MC-CDMA system aims to provide higher data transmission capacity than the current wide-band CDMA systems in mobile cellular communication environments. The proposed chip provides a robust tracking mechanism for synchronization errors and an accurate channel estimation strategy to overcome the challenge of outdoor fast-fading channels. Besides, low-power and low-complexity architecture design techniques are adopted to satisfy mobile receiver needs. Experimental results of the designed baseband receiver integrated circuit demonstrate its superior system performance and great reduction in power consumption. The chip was fabricated in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology with a core area of 2.6 mm times 2.6 mm. It can support up to 21.7-Mbps uncoded data rate in a 5-MHz bandwidth. When running at 5.76 MHz, its power consumption is as low as 9.9 mW from a supply voltage of 1.1 V.