A pulse generator using Pulse Amplitude Modulation for IR-UWB in 130nm CMOS process

The pulse generator circuit it is an essential block to Impulse Radio Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) transmitters, and must be studied to improve UWB system applications, such as radars and data transmissions in very high frequencies. This paper presents a compact pulse generator Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) circuit, in 130 nm CMOS technology, generating a logic level pulse with eight oscillations per pulse. The circuit design uses one charge pump per oscillation, current mirror circuits controlling amplitude oscillations at the output, and delay-cells controlling edge combiner circuits. The circuit has been simulated using LTSpice showing an output pulse amplitude of similar to 100 mV/-32 dBm for logic level 1, and an amplitude of similar to 55 mV/-42 dBm for logic level 0, both at 100 MHz Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) producing a mean pulses duration of similar to 150 ps and central frequency of similar to 6.8 GHz. The full block of the pulse generator occupies an area of 1674 mu m(2).