An energy study on IR-UWB transmitter using integration-and-fire modulation

The integrate-and-fire model of a biological neuron is an amplitude to time encoding in the spacing between action potentials (spikes). In principle, this encoding can be used to modulate signals in an Impulse Radio Ultra Wide-Band (IR-UWB) transmitter suitable for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). This paper presents a system level study on power efficiency using MATLAB/Simulink to evaluate the required energy for an IR-UWB Transmitter using integrate-and-fire encoding technique. Also, a simple but clear comparison with common systems utilizing Nyquist rate Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) is presented. This study has been carried out on a band-limited random Gaussian signal and the results show that IR-IF transmitter consumes roughly seven times less energy than a digital UWB transmitter; moreover, in the proposed architecture the need for power hungry ADC is relaxed.