Bandwidth reconfigurable UWB RFID tag with on-chip antenna

Inexpensive and power efficient transmitters are essential in tiny RFID tags or wireless sensors. We manufactured a CMOS UWB impulse radio transmitter which is connected to an on-chip antenna. The overall size of the tiny grain is 1×1.3 mm², and is developed in a standard CMOS process. In this paper we show simulations and measurements of our active reconfigurable bandwidth UWB transmitter. As well as the reconfigurable bandwidth, the center frequency of the radiated pulse are adjustable. We compare the measured current consumptions of a continuous wave and the pulse amplitude modulated signals, both created by the active driven circuit. This shows the feasibility of UWB Impulse Radio in asymmetric communication link scenarios, where most of the implementation complexity can be moved to the reader station (away from the RFID tag).