Development of CMOS transmitter frontends for UWB pulse systems

New fully integrated single-chip impulse ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitter front-ends, integrating tunable impulse or monocycle-pulse generator with bi-phase shift-keying (BPSK) modulator, have been developed using a standard low-cost 0.18-μm CMOS process. The monocycle pulse generator component produces 0.7 - 0.75 V peak-to-peak monocycle pulse with 140 - 350 ps tunable pulse duration. The impulse generator generates 0.95 - 1.05 V peak-to-peak Gaussian-type impulse signal with 100 - 300 ps tunable pulse duration. The BPSK modulator controls the pulse generator to generate positive or negative pulse signal depending on the “1” or “0” digital data information. The pulse signals produced by the developed transmitters are useful for various UWB applications, especially those requiring the capability of changing ranges and resolutions using only a single system.