Pulsed Ultra-Wideband Transceivers

Ultra-wideband (UWB) radios offer tremendous promise in terms of achievable data rates due to the large capacity afforded by their inherently large occupied bandwidth. While achieving ultra-high data rates may have been one of the original intents of UWB radios, pulsed-UWB radios have another potential advantage over their narrowband counterparts: energy. By exploiting the large available bandwidth in conjunction with non-coherent signaling, low-complexity and ultra-energy-efficient transmitters can be designed using all-digital architectures that do not require the use of a PLL. Similarly, energy-detecting receivers can receive pulses with low energy-per-bit at high data rates and can be rapidly duty-cycled to minimize overall power consumption. This chapter outlines the main challenges in UWB design, while discussing several representative receiver and transmitter implementations in detail.