Design and Analysis of a Multiport Circuit for Shaping Sub-Nanosecond Pulses

In this study, a coupled-line coupler was evaluated for its potential to shape sub-nanosecond ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses. The coupler was shown to exhibit a natural tendency to differentiate sub-nanosecond pulses, owing to its bandpass nature. Next, a Schottky detector diode was applied to confirm that the small parasitic reactance in the coupler gives rise to the differentiation behavior. The unconventional application of a coupler and Schottky diode towards signal differentiation culminated in the development of a novel UWB generator that simultaneously produces: a square waveform that has a 20%-80% rise time of 850 ps, a Gaussian waveform that has a pulse duration of 100 ps, and a monocycle waveform that has a 80 ps rise time between its peaks. These waveforms were obtained by taking advantage of the dc isolation of the coupled line structure and using step recovery diodes to compress the edges of a 14 MHz sinusoidal source. The resulting multiport circuit for simultaneous shaping of sub-nanosecond pulses (MCS³P) showed good agreement between measured and simulated results.