Derivation of circuit specification for the UWB impulse radio transceivers

To satisfy the huge demand for unlicensed handheld wireless networking devices, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC, USA) made the application of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology possible in 2002. Since then an IEEE standard has already been approved for the physical layer of the UWB impulse radio networking devices. Because of the ultra-wideband property the design and implementation of UWB circuits and systems set up an enormous challenge for the circuit designers. Unfortunately, an exact specification has not yet been derived for the circuit designers. Starting from the FCC Regulations and the IEEE UWB standard this contribution derives the required specifications for the blocks of UWB transceivers. It shows that if CMOS technology is used then the coverage of UWB impulse radio is limited by the low supply voltage. To overcome this limit more than one UWB carrier pulse is used to keep transmitted energy per bit high enough but to reduce the required voltage swing below the supply voltage. The optimum value of delay to be set between the successive UWB pulses is also determined.