This paper presents a 0.13 μm CMOS impulse radio ultra-wideband receiver which supports the on-off keying modulation scheme. The receiver includes a wideband low-noise amplifier, and allows for control of the integration window to accommodate different number of pulses per symbol at bandwidths of up to 10.6 GHz. A power cycling scheme is implemented to reduce the power consumption, and allows the system to operate within stringent power requirements. The receiver was simulated at data rates of 10 Mbps with a maximum simulated power usage of 4.5 mW. Power cycling reduces the power consumption by a factor of 3.3.

An on-off keying impulse radio ultra-wideband transmitter with frequency tuning ability based on a 0.13 µm CMOS process is presented. The output spectrum frequency and bandwidth can be adjusted using a digitally programmable oscillator in the 3.7 to 9 GHz range. This allows for the dynamic adjustment of the output spectrum to the surrounding environment. A fully integrated power cycling scheme is used to reduce significantly the power consumption. The transmitter achieves data rates of 10 Mbps with a simulated power consumption of 1.5 mW.I.

Four ultrawideband monopole antennas exploiting periodicity to reduce their size are presented. Experimental results are also discussed for these antennas. The first antenna uses a fractal topology based on a hexagonal pattern. It achieves a bandwidth of 8.85 GHz from 3.65 to 12.5 GHz with a 14 × 16.52 mm2 footprint. The second antenna uses an electric‐magnetic‐electric matrix and provides a 7 GHz bandwidth from 3.5 to 10.5 GHz with a 14 × 15.9 mm2 footprint. Two antennas based on a serrated structure which reduces the surface up to 15% are also presented with dimensions of 15 × 16.3 mm2: the first one covers a bandwidth of 3.5 to 11.73 GHz, whereas the second adds a notch between 5.15 to 5.825 GHz to reject the wireless LAN band. All these antennas can be incorporated into very small communication modules while maintaining excellent performances with a return loss below −10 dB and with a good multidirectional radiation pattern. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:2038–2044, 2014

This paper presents a digitally programmable transmitter for ultra-wideband impulse radio using on-off keying modulation scheme. The circuit can generate pulse widths ranging from 600 ps to 1.5 ns that can be spectrally centered at frequencies ranging from 3.9 GHz to 9.3 GHz. The system allows for digital control of the transmitted power spectrum shape in order to deal with varying transmission environments. The entire transmitter is power cycled, operating from a 1.2 V supply, and consuming a simulated power as low as 0.9 mW at a 10 Mbps data rate.