AWR software used to design UWB receiver

22nd April 2014

Nat Bowers

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Whitepaper

Italian electronics developer, Cover Sistemi used AWR software to design an ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver from concept to final production in a single pass. Specifications were for a complete design starting from the antenna through to the entire RF/baseband analog chain down to the AD converter.

Cover Sistemi was awarded a project for the design of a complete RF UWB receiver. Specifications were for a complete design starting from the antenna through to the entire RF/baseband analog chain down to the AD converter. It also included logic circuits for the receiver digital management. The project objective was to create a cost-effective receiver to be built using common off-the-shelf components on a six-layer printed circuit board (PCB) with a small 6x6cm footprint. Strict sensitivity specification poses a major challenge for UWB receiver design, as very low-noise figure is required. The target sensitivity of this UWB receiver was -92dBm with pulses occupying greater than 1GHz bandwidth.

Cover Sistemi designed the receiver from concept to final production with AWR software, using Microwave Office for the circuit design and AXIEM for the electromagnetic (EM) simulation. The scope of work included all design phases, from high-level simulation to circuit-level design and final verification of pre-layout and post-layout.

The UWB receiver included components such as antennas, filters, low-noise amplifiers, and mixers, all of which were built on a six-layer PCB. All component/design elements were first optimised for peak performance and then the entire design was validated with full-chain simulation using AWR’s APLAC multi-rate harmonic balance simulator (MRHB). The UWB signal had a very large set of harmonics, which required a powerful HB simulation engine. Thanks to AWR’s APLAC MRHB, the Cover Sistemi design team was able to validate the complete design using standard PC workstations.

First the design was simulated to ensure it matched the requirements. Next it was verified by design rule check (DRC) to check the design against the PCB supplier’s rules, and by layout versus schematic (LVS) to ensure proper connectivity of each layer, vias, and device connections. Gerber and drill echelon files were sent to the PCB supplier for production.

The complete success story is availableto download and read below.