Low-power design of a digital FM demodulator based on zero-cross detection at IF

A digital FM receiver/demodulator system, utilizing the zero-cross detection technique, is designed and implemented on a single IC. Zero-cross detection is performed at an IF frequency of 455 kHz. The system is simulated for BT=0.3 GMSK input with an input data rate of 8000 bps and displayed a better BER performance than coherent detectors. The developed system is implemented in 0.5 μm triple-metal standard digital CMOS technology. Power dissipation of the resultant IC is less than its analog counterparts while the occupied silicon area is very small making it low cost. The FM receiver/demodulator IC is suitable to be used in low-power and low-cost mobile communication applications providing better BER performance than conventional systems, especially in noisy channels