A CMOS fifth-derivative Gaussian pulse generator for UWB applications

A CMOS fifth-derivative Gaussian pulse generator is presented for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The design exhibits low power consumption, low circuit complexity, and a precise pulse shape to inherently comply with the FCC spectrum mask for indoor UWB applications without the need for a filter. The pulse generator is implemented with a 1.8-V, 0.18-mu m CMOS process. The small core chip size of the pulse generator is only 217 x 121 mu m(2) because of its all digital circuit design. The measured fifth-derivative Gaussian pulse has a peak-to-peak amplitude of 158 mV and a pulse width of 800 ps. The average power dissipation is 0.6 mW with a pulse repetition frequency of 50 MHz.