A Low-Complexity CMOS Receiver for UWB signals

Abstract

It is well-known that GPS is a widely used technology for localization in outdoors environments. Nonetheless, such standard fails to provide a practical and accurate solution for localization and ranging applications within indoor environments due to the need of satellites and meter-level accuracy, which is poor for indoor environments. It is in this context that Ultra-Wideband (UWB) emerges as the potential standard to overcome the accuracy shortcomings of other types of radio signals, which is needed for security, military and medical applications. Based on the fact that first-path time and amplitude detection favor the ranging accuracy in indoor environments. This thesis presents the implementation of a novel low-complexity receiver concept implementing first-path time and amplitude detection with a maximum ranging error of less than 7cm. This system is able to decouple amplitude from time detection, which improves the TOA estimation accuracy of the system. The architecture of this receiver is fully self-biased and inverter-based, which also favors process scalability. The receiver is able to perform time detection on signals with frequencies up to 900MHz due to technology limitations. Furthermore, a low-power consumption of 22mW is achieved.