A VLSI Implementation of Low Power, Low Data Rate UWB Transceiver for Location and Tracking Applications

A low power, low data rate ultra wideband (UWB) impulse radio transceiver for location and tracking applications is presented in this paper. The UWB receiver is based on a non-coherent, energy collection approach, which makes the receiver highly independent of the shape of the transmitted waveform. The UWB signal is generated by a pulse generator and band-pass filter fixing the signal bandwidth to 1 GHz in the band from 3.1 GHz to 4.1 GHz. The modulation scheme used in this time division multiple access system (TDMA) is Binary Pulse Position Modulation (BPPM). In this paper the system concept, system architecture and RF parts of the VLSI implementation are peresented. The transceiver is implemented in a 0.35 μm SiGe process provided by Austria Microsystems.