A configurable pulse generator for intermittent operation and synchronization of IR-UWB receivers

In this paper, we present a low power and configurable pulse generator with on-off keying (OOK) modulator feature for non-coherent impulse radio (IR) receiver synchronization and intermittent receiver operation. The pulse generator has adjustable pulse width and pulse delay properties. The configurability is achieved using on-chip bias cells with external inputs. The pulse width can be configured between 2 ns and 15 ns, and pulse delay can be adjusted up to 6 ns at 1.2 V supply voltage. The dynamic energy consumption per pulse (Epp) of the mono-pulse generator is 48 pJ/pulse and 30 pJ/pulse at 1.2 V and 0.6 V supply voltages, respectively. 250 MHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is observed in the measurements.