Super-Regenerative Reception Technique Based on an Improved General Theory in Linear Mode

Super-regenerative receivers (SRRs) hold great promise as a low-cost solution for wireless communication due to their low power and relative simplicity. However, previous researches have primarily concentrated on super-regenerative amplifiers/oscillators, leading to limited insights into SRRs with inappropriate assumptions or dispensable operations, such as synchronous quench and baseband oversampling. This paper presents an improved general theory of super-regenerative reception in the linear mode that provides more design insights for digital communication. By analyzing the time-domain model of a general super-regenerative circuit, we derived a comprehensive frequency-domain model based on a convolution method, through which a concept of signal-lobe transfer function is introduced. Based on the proposed model, the effects of quench jitter and residual phenomenon are analyzed. Furthermore, an asynchronous quench method is introduced, which eliminates the requirement of synchronization between the modulated symbol and the quench signal, thus reducing the system complexity. To eliminate the baseband oversampling, especially for high-speed communications, main-lobe filtering and sub-sampling techniques are also proposed. To verify this general theory and proposed techniques, two SRRs with main-lobe filtering and sub-sampling were designed with ideal components and simulated using Cadence Virtuoso. The simulation results of two SRRs match with the proposed model very well. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of super-regenerative reception for digital communication and offers valuable insights into its potentials and limitations.