High-Resolution UWB Ranging based on Phase-Only Correlator

Phase-Only Correlator (POC) performs signal/pattern matching in the frequency domain using spectral phase information. A Modified Phase-Only Correlator (MPOC) is proposed in this paper to perform Time-of-Arrival (ToA) estimation for UWB ranging/positioning applications. Both simulation and measurement results show that the MPOC has significant advantages over the conventional sliding correlator and existing phase correlators, such as better sidelobe suppression and ability to resolve signals separated by less than a UWB pulse width. This is because the MPOC output is impulse like and has no sidelobes even in the presence of multipath signals. These strengths render the MPOC applicable for high-resolution multi-target UWB ranging and positioning.