Gated threshold compensated noncoherent PPM receiver for UWB impulse radio

Since the coherent receivers are not feasible to implement low-cost ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radio (IR) devices featuring extremely low power consumption, energy detector-based (ED-based) noncoherent receivers are more and more frequently chosen. The Pulse Polarity Modulation (PPM) scheme with a threshold compensated receiver is a promising candidate for the implementation of cheap and robust UWB IR devices. Unfortunately, the field tests and computer simulations have shown the well known fact that the noise performance of noncoherent demodulators is much behind that of their coherent counterparts. The poor noise performance results in a such a bad receiver sensitivity that prevents the use of noncoherent receivers in the majority of real applications. This contribution shows how the noise performance of noncoherent threshold compensated PPM receiver can be improved considerably by disabling the receiver outside of the UWB pulse where only channel noise and interference is observed. The novel receiver configuration, referred to as gated threshold compensated noncoherent PPM receiver offers an 8-dB improvement in receiver sensitivity.