Ultrawideband design challenges for wireless chip-to-chip communications and interconnects

The ever growing demand for on-board space craft processing combined with the exponential advance in chip development and high pin count devices is resulting in an increased complexity in high reliability interconnect technology. When the thermal management, control of ground bounce, and power distribution issues are considered, achieving the required reliability levels for space applications with traditional interconnect technologies is becoming more of a concern. As an alternative solution, an ultrawideband (UWB) based high speed wireless method for chip to chip as well as off-board communications can be considered. Such approach would reduce the high pin count connectors and interconnects between complex components. UWB with its simple transceiver architecture, low power consumption, and high data rate within short ranges is shown to be the best candidate for the applications targeted. This paper explores the design challenges for developing a test-bed using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components that will be used to prove the concept of wireless chip-to-chip communications and develop associated algorithms. Energy detector based UWB transceiver is presented in this paper and our study shows the feasibility of implementation such transceiver using COTS components. The UWB transceivers will eventually be integrated into a chip eliminating the need for many of the high speed interface specific applications, and decreasing the number of the pin fields required