A -81dBm Sensitivity, 5MHz-IF, 5.8GHz Low Power RF Receiver For IOV Applications

Internet of Vehicles (IOV) is a wireless communication network that connects vehicles, Road-Side unit (RSU), and cloud system to deliver real-time serves for intelligent and connected transportation. As a core component of the IOV dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) chain, the receiver plays a vital role in sustaining communication between the On-Board Unit (OBU) and the RSU. To balance the image rejection requirement and system complexity, this paper presents an intermediate frequency (Low-IF) 5.8 GHz receiver with high receiving sensitivity. The presented receiver features a 5 MHz IF and incorporates a low-noise amplifier (LNA) and mixer for down-converting RF signals to the IF band. A band-pass filter (BPF) is utilized to reduce noise and interference out-of the targeted band. The following received signal strength indicator (RSSI) with a fixed gain of 60 dB extracts the envelope of the IF signal, which is sent to a single-to-differential converter (SDC) and a comparator with hysteresis for data recovery. Fabricated using a 180 nm CMOS process, the presented receiver occupies a silicon area of 460 μm × 845 μm. Measurement results show the receiving sensitivity is better than -80 dBm for both 5.83 GHz and 5.84 GHz, the designated ETC communication frequency. The results also indicate robust out-of-band rejection performance.