Ultra-wideband pulse generation, detection and filtering using distributed architectures and circuit techniques

The generation, detection and filtering of ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses have become increasingly important in wireless communications, fiber-optical communications and pulse radar systems. Wideband integrated circuits (ICs) in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology are of particular interests for these applications due to the following advantages: low cost, large scale integration capabilities, and fast technology development. However, CMOS technologies also bring great challenges in designing wideband ICs. To overcome these challenges, circuit complexity can be traded for speed and power by operating multiple circuit blocks cooperatively, i.e., using distributed circuits. On the other hand, digital circuits can be integrated into radio frequency (RF) ICs to improve the performance, e.g., dynamic range. This dissertation presents our studies on UWB pulse processing using (a) distributed architectures and circuits, and (b) digitally-assisted RF techniques. Chip prototypes in 0.18mum standard digital CMOS technologies are demonstrated for the following UWB pulse processing circuits.;For UWB pulse filtering, we incorporated non-uniform filtering structures into distributed amplifiers (DAs) using the network synthesis method for spectrum control over both passband and stopband. Two DA prototypes with Butterworth and Chebyshev filtering were implemented. Filtering functions can also be implemented in DAs by combining multiple signals noncoherently, which leads to the development of distributed transversal filters (DTFs).;For UWB pulse generation, multiple pulse generators are time-interleaved in a distributed architecture with wideband pulse combining using an on-chip transmission line. This newly-developed circuit, distributed waveform generator (DWG) can achieve high sampling rate with low power consumption. It also has built-in filtering and modulation functions. A 10GS/s, single-polarity DWG prototype with digital pulse generators achieves 50pJ/pulse energy efficiency. A 3-9GHz impulse radio UWB (IR-UWB) transmitter based on a 1OGS/s, dual-polarity DWG achieves 45pJ/pulse energy efficiency.;In a similar distributed architecture, multiple pulsed multipliers can be time-interleaved to detect UWB pulses. Such a distributed pulsed correlator (DPC) has the built-in template pulse generator and uses an on-chip transmission line for pulse distribution. A 10GS/s differential DPC prototype has been implemented as the RF front-end of an IR-UWB receiver, which achieves 40pJ/b with 250Mbps data rate.;To improve dynamic range using digitally-assisted RF techniques, digital-to-analog converters (DAC) assisted pulse generators were incorporated into a 10.9GS/s DWG prototype to achieve more than 20dB dynamic range of pulse generation. Similarly, binary-weighted gain cell was adopted in a DTF design for enhancing the dynamic range.