A UWB-IR Transmitter Using Frequency Conversion in Nonlinear Transmission Lines With 16 pJ/pulse Energy Consumption

Abstract

We present a new architecture for an ultrawideband impulse radio transmitter using Bragg frequency ringing on a nonlinear transmission line. This technique has the potential to generate microwave pulses with energy consumption in the 16-22 pJ/pulse range and shows unique properties, including energy consumption scaling with the inverse of frequency, and the ability to generate frequencies exceeding the <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">fT</i> of the driver circuit. We fabricate 10, 20, and 30 GHz transmitters in 0.13-μm RF-CMOS to establish the energy scaling property. We demonstrate wireless transmission over several meters using a low-sensitivity, off-the-shelf receiver and show a best energy performance of 16 pJ/pulse.