An efficient integration of GPS and WCDMA radio front-ends

An efficient integration of global positioning system (GPS) and universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) radio front-end units is presented. The combined front-end unit includes the transmitter and receiver filters, duplex filter, power amplifier, buck regulator, and power detector for the UMTS wireless code-division multiple-access system. The GPS building blocks of the radio front-end unit consist of the low-noise amplifier and RF filter. The inter-system isolation was experimentally quantified and the compared against the minimum inter-system isolation requirements, defined according to desensitization and intermodulation tests in the GPS receiver. The characterized isolation of the antenna array provided 6 dB of margin over the minimum inter-system isolation requirements for 3-dB degradation of the carrier-to-noise ratio in GPS receivers. The UMTS portion of the radio front-end unit was verified against the Third-Generation Partnership Project standard.