Low data rate ultra-wideband transceiver testbed for 6.0–8.5 GHz communications using commercial-off-the-shelf components

A new ultra-wideband (UWB) carrier based transceiver testbed with tunable carrier frequency for 6.0-8.5 GHz UWB communications compliant to European and United States indoor regulations is presented. Data is transmitted by UWB pulse trains generated using D-type flip-flops and upconverted by a frequency mixer and a tunable voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) providing a carrier frequency of 6.6-7.9 GHz. Suitable modulation formats are Pulse Position Modulation and On-Off-Keying (OOK). For low cost applications and low-complexity devices, the suboptimal receiver scheme of energy detection was chosen and realized with a logarithmic detector. The transceiver testbed is controlled by digital signal controllers (DSC) and is fabricated using only commercial off- the-shelf (COTS) components offering the designer flexibility and lower costs for non-mass-market products and applications. Measurement results in time domain and frequency domain are presented showing the functionality of the testbed and its conformity to European and US UWB regulations.