Cognitive Radio Receiver Design Employing Pipeline Successive Approximation ADC

Smart cities require better cellular communication, incorporating a high data rate that satisfies the Internet, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) requirements. A high data rate demands higher bandwidth with low latency. However, the already saturated or underutilized frequency spectrum hinders this realization. 5G and cognitive radio technology can enhance spectrum utilization to meet the high data demands of future cellular communication. Cognitive radio uses spectrum sensing to identify underutilized frequencies without interfering with licensed users, addressing the scarcity of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this paper, a cognitive radio receiver design with a SAR analog-to-digital converter, which is recognized for having a modest resolution for high bandwidth signals, is implemented. Moreover, the pipeline technique in the SAR design is proposed to increase the resolution to be suitable for 5G applications. The high-level model of the system is simulated using MATLAB Simulink software. The quantization error observed in the regular SAR ADC design is compared to that in the proposed pipeline SAR ADC, highlighting the enhanced accuracy and efficiency of the pipeline SAR ADC, which makes it suitable for spectrum sensing in next-generation cognitive radio systems.