Practical realization of UWB analog FIR-filter in MIC technology

Most modern signal processing systems use a combination of analog and digital techniques in order to accomplish the desired function and take advantage of the best of both. Choosing the right technique might not always be clear and will depend on the expected functionality of the application and the cost, namely for low cost, low power portable devices for the UWB frequency band. According to the Nyquist theorem, the ADC sampling rate for digitizing UWB signals must be on the order of several gigasamples/sec which still is a serious challenge for such devices. Digital FIR filters are widely used in digital signal processing for the realization of filter responses with prescribed frequency behavior. The aim of this paper is to propose a novel design of an analog UWB FIR filter in MIC technology. Only few efforts have been published to produce a broadband analog FIR filter circuit for the microwave frequency range and to the authors´ knowledge there is no MIC-technology analog FIR filter covering the whole UWB frequency band.