System design considerations for ultra-wideband communication

This article discusses issues associated with high-data-rate pulsed ultra-wideband system design, including the baseband processing, transmitter, antenna, receiver, and analog-to-digital conversion. A modular platform is presented that can be used for developing system specifications and prototyping designs. This prototype modulates data with binary phase shift keyed pulses, communicates over a wireless link using UWB antennas and a wideband direct conversion front-end, and samples the received signal for demodulation. Design considerations are introduced for a custom chipset that operates in the 3.1-10.6 GHz band. The chipset is being designed using the results from the discrete prototype.