An IR-UWB Transmitter for Ranging Systems

This brief presents a continuous-time impulse radio ultrawideband transmitter. The transmitter is a part of a high-precision ranging single-chip transceiver that measures the time-of-flight symbol propagation. The clock burst generator in the transmitter will initiate symbol transmission in continuous time unbounded by any clock signal while maintaining an accurate chip rate during symbol transmission. Using a calibration circuit, the clock period can be programmed precisely to compensate for device mismatch. The transmitter is fabricated in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company 90-nm CMOS technology and occupies an area of 0.123 mm². The programmable clock range is from 12.65 to 111 MHz, and the measured rms jitter is 3.26 ps at 50 MHz. The entire transmitter has a power consumption of 1.41 mW at the data rate of 2 Mbit/s.