A Low-Power RF Front-End Architecture for an L1/L2CS GPS Receiver

With the apparition of several new civilian signals in the years to come, there will soon be great demand for multifrequency receivers. As soon as two signals will be available, users will be able to correct the ionospheric error, the main source of error since the SA has been disabled. Multifrequency receivers will also be able to switch between the current L1 C/A code and the new modernized signals to make best use of their individual characteristics. As expected, the improvements in performance will be accompanied by an increase in complexity, more noticeably at the RF front-end. In this paper, we discuss the different solutions to realize an RF front-end for a dual-frequency GPS receiver and propose an innovative solution which has a power consumption comparable with that of a single-frequency front-end.