A BPSK superregenerative receiver. Preliminary results

Abstract

Abstract-Thispaper describes a bit-synchronous superregenerative receiver suitable for BPSK demodulation. The output of the superregenerative oscillator (SRO), which reproduces the phase information of the input signal, is directly sampled by a D flip flop clocked by a signal derived from the quench waveform. Analytical background on the response of the SRO to a BPSK modulated input is presented. A PSpice macromodel of the receiver is also provided, allowing simulation in the linear and logarithmic modes of operation. Simulation results confirm the feasibility of the described approach. Finally, a proof-of-concept superregenerative receiver, capable of receiving a BPSK modulated carrier at 27 MHz with preliminary experimental results is presented. The measured sensitivity of this receiver is -99.5 dBm for a bit error rate of 10 -3 .

A Superregenerative QPSK Receiver

“…Here, we will point out that T q is the receiver quench period, ω 0 is the SRO oscillation frequency, H(ω c ) is a frequency response term, depending on the carrier frequency, and p(t) is a normalized pulse, with max(p(t)) = 1. Upon inspection, we may conclude that the response (2) is a train of RF pulses where the phase information contained in the input signal is preserved [13], [16].…”

“…While the operation principle was demonstrated experimentally, no performance figures of a receiver in actual operation were reported. In contrast, the technique in [13] makes use of a conventional SRO followed by a one-bit sampler acting when the SRO pulses have achieved sufficient amplitude. A conventional D flip-flop is used to sample and store the decided bit, which is even less complex than analog envelope detection and ulterior sampling.…”

“…Based on a bit-synchronous receiver, we build on the results in [13] but taking N 1-bit samples of each SRO pulse. A suitable choice of the sampling frequency gives as a result a bit vector containing a sub-sampled version of each PSK pulse.…”

A Low In-Band Radiation Superregenerative Oscillator

“…In the last years, the SR receiver has been revisited and several integrated implementations have been reported [3]- [5], some of its drawbacks have been eliminated and its field of application has been broadened, with papers reporting applications to spread-spectrum [6] and UWB communications [7], [8]. On the other hand, applications of these receivers beyond classic ASK modulation have been reported [9], [10] and the SR principle has even been extended to broadband amplifiers and mixers [11].…”

Ultra Wideband Impulse Radio Superregenerative Reception

“…Thus, SR receivers are a promising alternative to other architectures in emerging applications such as wireless sensor networks and medical devices (Ayers et al, 2010, Bohorquez et al, 2009Otis et al, 2005). Recent proposals for their use include: reception of spread spectrum, phase and frequency modulations (Ayers et al 2010, Moncunill et al, 2005bPalà et al, 2009); use of stable frequency references such as bulk-acoustic-wave (BAW) resonators (Otis et al, 2005); implementation of digital self-calibrating techniques (Chen et al, 2007); and, very recently, reception of ultra wideband impulse radio (UWB IR) modulations (Anis et al, 2008;Moncunill et al, 2007b;Moncunill et al, 2009;Pelissier et al, 2009;Thoppay, 2010).…”