Design of blocks for an ultra wireband transceiver

Abstract

Ultra wideband (UWB) is one of the strongest technologies for short-range high data rate and longer range low data rate communications. Wireless personal area networks are one example of the first group while wireless sensor networks are considered as one of the second. UWB has not only various advantages and potentials such as low cost circuitry, precise ranging capability, etc. but also has its own challenges. Thus, in the literature, there is a lot of work which uses some of these advantages and tries to find solutions for the challenges and problems with different circuit architectures. The goal of this dissertation is to design a high data rate UWB transceiver. Designing a high data rate low power transmitter was the main focus of this thesis during this design process while the design of the receiver part was accomplished by project team. Various transceiver structures, modulation techniques, communication approaches, pulse shapes and circuits are reviewed in terms of performances, spectral characteristics, hardware complexities, and data rates. At the end of this review, an energy detection non-coherent impulse radio (IR) UWB system is chosen. Blocks of this system are initially realized using a hardware description language. After simulations of the system two different pulse generator topologies are examined in detail and compared. Consequently, a new one is designed which has a data rate up to 1 Gbps and respectively consumes relatively low power. Simulations of the transmitter and the receiver are performed simultaneously. Thus, some adjustments can be done on the transmitter according to the simulation results of the receiver or vice versa. Besides, corner simulations are taken into consideration during design period of the pulse generator. In the literature, many of the studies do not include corner case simulations hence, it can be said that most of the circuits proposed in these papers cannot endure the problems formed as a result of the variations arise during manufacturing process. In the last phase of the transceiver design process, layouts of all circuits are drawn with UMC’s 130 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.