A Fully Integrated IEEE 802.15.4/4z-Compliant UWB System-on-Chip RF Transceiver Supporting Precision Positioning in a CMOS 28-nm Process

This article presents a fully integrated ultrawideband (UWB) system-on-chip (SoC) that complies with IEEE 802.15.4/4z standard, providing precise positioning and secure communication capabilities. The proposed UWB SoC includes a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, a modem, a microcontroller unit (MCU), an eFlash, a power management unit (PMU), clock generation IPs, and peripheral blocks. The RF transceiver integrates RF switches and comprises two transmitters and three receivers. The proposed nonuniform quantization digital-to-analog converter (NQ-DAC) is used in the transmitter to enhance the quality of pulse sidelobe, and a receiver I/Q mismatch estimation technique using a double-sideband (DSB) transmitter as a reference is proposed. The UWB SoC operates in the frequencies at 6.5 GHz (Ch5) and 8 GHz (Ch9), achieving a location estimation precision of a few centimeters. The prototype UWB SoC is fabricated in a CMOS 28-nm process, and the experimental results under base pulse repetition frequencies (BPRFs) 6.81 Mbps show a receiver sensitivity -96.1 dBm and a transmitter output peak power of 14.25 dBm, achieving the state-of-the-art performance. The prototype UWB SoC demonstrates the power consumption of 198.6 mW during transmitter operation and 309.7, 442.5, and 528.9 mW for 1-RX, 2-RX, and 3-RX during packet reception. The proposed UWB SoC architecture and techniques provide a practical and efficient solution for IEEE 802.15.4/4z compliant UWB systems.