Ultra-Wideband Pulse Generator with Simultaneous Optimization of Sidelobe Suppression and Essential Bandwidth

Abstract

Impulse-radio ultra-wideband signaling is being widely used in small-distance, low-power, and low-cost applications such as wireless sensor networks (WSN) and wireless personal area networks (WPAN). This paper presents an on-off keying-driven impulse radio ultra-wideband pulse generator aimed at wireless-powered applications. The proposed impulse-radio ultra-wideband pulse generator is built upon a pseudo-digital architecture, with the core cell being implemented using digital gates to achieve the desired timing delay. To eliminate the need for an external pulse-shaping filter, a pulse-shaping scheme based on the power transistor sizing technique is exploited to generate a broadband pulse with triangular envelope; ensuring enhanced sidelobe suppression in compliance with the FCC spectral mask for UWB communications and extended signal bandwidth to utilize the given spectrum more efficiently. The prototype pulse generator is implemented in 65-nm RF CMOS technology with TSMC 65nm GP process. The measurement results show an energy consumption of 34-pJ/pulse with a pulse amplitude of 580-mVpp, a 10-dB bandwidth of 1.14 GHz, and more than 30-dB sidelobe suppression in the DC-2.8 GHz band.