FM over Impulse Radio UWB

Recent regulatory action provided access to large chunks of spectrum for low spectral power density ultra-wideband communication and sensing devices, yet use of this spectrum currently lags behind expectations. The authors propose a simple migration path suitable for low-cost analog audio and video distribution. It uses FM modulation of the clock signal to an impulse radio pulse generator and a simple receiver based on a rectifier or squaring device which retrieves the FM modulated signal. Using previously developed IR-UWB components (an FCC-compliant monolithic pulse generator, a 3.1-10.6 GHz low-noise amplifier and wideband antennas), plus discrete receiver components, a proof-of-concept experiment was conducted with a 99.4 MHz carrier frequency FM signal. Furthermore it is shown that the receiver performance can be further improved by properly terminating the higher-order signal components after the rectifier.