L'Ultra Large Bande est une technique de transmission radio qui consiste à utiliser des signaux dont le spectre s'étale sur une large bande de fréquences, typiquement de l'ordre de 500 MHz à plusieurs GHz. Elle fut d'abord utilisée pour des applications radars puis transposée aux applications de télécommunications, suscitant ainsi un intérêt grandissant au sein de la communauté académique et industrielle. Les principales caractéristiques de cette technologie lui confèrent le statut d'un candidat prometteur pour les systèmes de communications radio haut-débit à courte portée. Cette thèse poursuit un objectif double. Le premier consiste à améliorer l'analyse de performances des antennes ULB et à en proposer de nouvelles structures soit pour la mesure de canal, soit pour les communications. Dans cet objectif, des descripteurs temporels particulièrement pertinents pour le mode impulsionnel sont introduits et appliqués aux antennes réalisées. Le deuxième objectif de cette thèse est de caractériser les réseaux ULB corporels. Dans ce contexte, la question de l'interaction antenne ULB/corps s'est naturellement posée. De nombreuses simulations et mesures sur des personnes volontaires ont permis d'étudier cette question. Une campagne extensive de mesures du canal ULB sur le corps a été ensuite réalisée, ce qui a permis de proposer un modèle statistique capable de reproduire les effets de ce canal de manière réaliste, en configuration statique.

La technique ultra large bande (UWB) par impulsions consiste à émettre des impulsions de courte durée et de faible énergie offrant ainsi la possibilité de transmettre de l'information à de hauts débits et à faible coût. Dans cette thèse nous nous sommes intéressés aux systèmes ultra large bande à accès multiple par répartition de codes de saut temporel (TH-UWB) dans un contexte asynchrone et dans un environnement de propagation à trajets multiples. Un récepteur rake a été mis en place. Nous avons calculé de manière analytique la variance de l'interférence multi-utilisateur (MUI) en sortie de ce récepteur. Ceci nous a permis d'identifier les paires dites optimales qui minimisent cette variance. Nous avons constaté qu'utiliser ces paires permet d'améliorer significativement le taux d'erreur binaire du système. Une démarche similaire a été appliquée aux systèmes DS-UWB et DS-CDMA, en effet ces systèmes s'expriment analytiquement de manière identique au système TH-UWB. Ainsi nous avons pu caractériser les paires optimales. Nous avons ensuite comparé les performances de ces différents systèmes lorsque la variance de la MUI est minimale. La variance de l'interférence entre symboles et entre trames (ISI / IFI) a été calculée analytiquement. Ceci nous a permis de dimensionner le récepteur rake et le temps de garde intelligemment. Nous avons également observé, en absence d'ISI / IFI et de bruit, un seuil sur la probabilité d'erreur. En modifiant légèrement le récepteur, nous avons éliminé ce seuil. Enfin nous avons établi les bornes de Cramer-Rao relatives à l'estimation des paramètres du canal (amplitudes et retards) en supposant que les trajets pouvaient se chevaucher.

Nombre d'applications nécessitent un lien de communication sans fil présentant une faible consommation électrique, sans requérir de débits élevés. La technologie basée sur la transmission de signaux impulsionnels UWB dispose de bonnes propriétés intrinsèques permettant non seulement d'envisager la mise en œuvre de solutions peu complexes au niveau de l'émetteur-récepteur, mais aussi d'exploiter à des fins de radiolocalisation la résolution temporelle inhérente à la largeur de bande disponible. Cette technologie a d'ailleurs été plébiscitée au sein du groupe IEEE 802.15.4a qui a été chargé de définir une couche physique alternative pour les WPAN bas débit. C'est dans ce contexte de recherche technologique et de normalisation que s'inscrivent ces travaux de thèse, avec pour objectif la définition d'une architecture de récepteur consommant peu, et compatible avec la norme en cours d'élaboration. En premier lieu, nous caractérisons les signaux UWB et développons un modèle d'impulsion prenant en compte les principaux paramètres de la couche physique intervenant dans la puissance rayonnée (largeur de bande, densité spectrale, fréquence de répétition des impulsions, etc.). Nous étudions ensuite l'influence du canal de propagation et modélisons de manière statistique plusieurs grandeurs nécessaires à l'établissement d'un bilan de liaison réaliste (distribution des amplitudes reçues, répartition de l'énergie, etc.). À la lumière de ces études, nous explorons et comparons différentes architectures de réception (performance, complexité, robustesse aux trajets multiples, etc). Enfin, la solution retenue, comprenant également un algorithme de synchronisation, est présentée en détails.

<p>Today the frequency spectrum is full of wireless standards. The most common technique being used is the frequency modulation. To take advantage of this and the technology improvement a new wireless communication standard is being developed. This standard is using a low power impulse modulation method, allowing it to overlap with other standards. The proposed standard called IEEE802.15.3a is applied at an Ultra Wide Band and has potential to be used both in interchip and intrasystem communication, since it allows a very high data density. </p><p>In this thesis the analog to digital converter is designed, which is one part of a communication system. Although the signal bandwidth is very wide the converter is designed as a Sigma-Delta modulator, which is most suitable for low-speed applications. Its main advantages over high-speed converters are less area and less power consumption. The goal of this project is to investigate if the CMOS090 process technology will be sufficient for reaching a signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, of 30 dB in a signal band of 264 MHz. </p><p>The main limiting factor during the design of the modulator is the excess feedback delay. This delay degrades the SNR and can even make the system unstable. At a feedback delay of 83 ps and a sampling frequency of 6.336 GHz, the maximum SNR achieved was 27 dB. At this high frequency the modulator is close to instability. Hence, to ensure stability a maximum sampling frequency of 4.224 GHz is chosen, achieving a SNR of 19 dB. </p><p>The effect of the feedback delay can be reduced either by using a different structure or by using compensation methods, either of them would probably allow a SNR above 30 dB.</p>

<p>Ultra Wideband Radio (UWB) is an upcoming alternative for wireless communications. Since the Federal Communication Commission in the USA allowed UWB for unlicensed usage in April 2002, more and more companies have started developing UWB systems. </p><p>The major difference with UWB compared to other RF systems is that UWB sends information with pulses instead of using a carrier wave. The technique is from the nineteenth century and was first developed by Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), which led to transatlantic communications 1901. </p><p>This Master thesis presents a proposal of a transmitter for Ultra Wideband Radio using multiple bands. The proposed transmitter is implemented on system level in Simulink, Matlab. The frequency generation in the transmitter is also implemented at component level in a 0.13 um IBM process. The thesis begins with an introduction of UWB theory and techniques.</p>

<p>An extensive investigation of front-door protection devices i.e. limiters has been made. The thesis work contains both HPM- and UWB-measurements done on various limiters, in order to characterize them. The measurements show that all limiters are not suitable as protection against HPM- and UWB-pulses. The limiters that were found to provide the best protection are limiters based on diode technologies. PIN- and Schottky-diodes generally shows very good performance and they fulfill many parameters that have been set by FOI. To obtain a full protection it is presumably necessary to use two or more limiters in combination, which complement each other.</p> / <p>En omfattande studie av framvägskopplingsskydd, dvs. limiters har gjorts. Examensarbetet innehåller resultat från både HPM- och UWB- mätningar som har gjorts på olika limitrar för att karaktärisera deras prestanda. Av resultaten från mätningarna kan man se att alla limitrar inte passar som skydd mot HPM- och UWB-pulser. De limitrar som tillhandahöll det bästa skyddet var baserade på olika diodtekniker. PIN- och Schottky-dioder visade sig överlag ha väldigt goda prestanda och de uppfyller många av de parametrar som bestämts av FOI. För att få ett heltäckande skydd är det förmodligen nödvändigt att man använder två eller flera limitrar i kombination, som kompletterar varandra.</p>

Indoor localization systems have a variety of applications such as tracking of assets, indoor robot navigation, and monitoring of people (e.g. patients) in hospitals or at home. Global positioning system (GPS) offers location accuracy of several meters and is mainly used for outdoor location-based applications as its accuracy degrades significantly in indoor scenarios. Wireless local area networks (WLAN) have also been used for indoor localization, but the accuracy is too low and power consumption of WLAN terminals is too high for most applications. Ultra-wideband (UWB) localization is superior in terms of accuracy and power consumption compared with GPS and WLAN localization, and is thus more suitable for most indoor location-based applications [1-4]. The accuracy and precision requirements of localization systems depend on the specific characteristics of the applications. For example, centimeter or even millimeter localization accuracy is required for dynamic part tracking, while decimeter accuracy might be sufficient for tracking patients in hospitals or at home. Note that accuracy is not the only aspect of the overall performance of the system. Factors such as cost, range, and complexity should also be considered in system design. In the first part of this dissertation, a centimeter-accurate UWB localization system is developed. The technical challenges to achieve centimeter localization accuracy are investigated. Since all the receivers are synchronized through wire connection in this system, a wireless localization system with centimeter accuracy is introduced in order to make the system easier for deployment. A two-step synchronization algorithm with picosecond accuracy is presented, and the system is tested in a laboratory environment. The second part of this dissertation focuses on reducing the complexity of UWB localization systems when the localization accuracy requirement is relaxed. An UWB three-dimensional localization scheme with a single cluster of receivers is proposed. This scheme employs the time-of-arrival (TOA) technique and requires no wireless synchronization among the receivers. A hardware and software prototype that works in the 3.1-5.1 GHz range is constructed and tested in a laboratory environment. An average position estimation error of less than 3 decimeter is achieved by the experimental system. This TOA scheme with receivers in a single unit requires synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver unit. In order to further reduce system complexity, a new time-difference-of-arrival localization scheme is proposed. This scheme requires multiple units, each operating on its own clock. It avoids synchronization between the transmitter and receivers, and thus makes the development of the transmitter extremely simple. The performance of this system is simulated and analyzed analytically, and turns out to be satisfactory for most indoor localization applications. / Graduation date: 2013

The number of wireless communication applications increase steadily, leading to the competition for currently allocated frequency bands. Pressure on authorities around the world to permit communications in higher and wider frequency ranges to achieve higher wireless capacity than those existed in the past has resulted in several new specifications. The federal communication commission (FCC) in USA has unleashed the band 3.1-10.6 GHz for ultra-wideband radio (UWB) communications. The release has triggered a worldwide interest for UWB. Other regulatory instances throughout the world have issued use of UWB techniques as well. Capacity issues in form of data rate and latency have always been a bottleneck for broadened wireless-communication usages. New communication systems like UWB require larger bandwidth than what is normally utilized with traditional antenna techniques. The interest for compact consumer electronics is growing in the meantime, creating a demand on efficient and low profile antennas which can be integrated on a printed circuit board. In this thesis, some methods to extend the bandwidth and other antenna parameters associated with wideband usages are studied. Furthermore, methods on how to enhance the performance when one antenna-element is not enough are studied as well. The principle of antenna parallelism is demonstrated using both microstrip patch antennas and inverted-F antennas. Several techniques to combine the antennas in parallel have been evaluated. Firstly, a solution using power-splitters to form sub-arrays that covers one 500-MHz multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) UWB is shown in Paper I. It is then proposed that the sub-bands are selected with a switching network. A more convenient method is to use the later developed frequency multiplexing technique as described in Paper V and VIII. Using the frequency multiplexing technique, selective connection of any number of antennas to a common junction is possible. The characteristic impedance is chosen freely, typically using a 50-Ω feed-line. Secondly, in Paper VIII a frequency-triplexed inverted-F antenna system is investigated to cover the Mode 1 multi-band UWB bandwidth 3.1-4.8 GHz. The antenna system is composed of three inverted-F antennas and a frequency triplexer including three 5th order bandpass filters. In Paper VI a printed circuit board integrated-triplexer for multi-band UWB radio is presented. The triplexer utilizes a microstrip network and three combined broadside- and edge-coupled filters. The triplexer is fully integrated in a four metal-layer printed circuit board with the minimum requirement on process tolerances. Furthermore, the system is built completely with distributed microstrips, i.e., no discrete components. Using the proposed solution an equal performance between the sub-bands is obtained. Finally suitable monopoles and dipoles are discussed and evaluated for UWB. In Paper X circular monopole and dipole antennas for UWB utilizing the flex-rigid concept are proposed. The flex-rigid concept combines flexible polyimide materials with the regular printed circuit board material. The antennas are placed entirely on the flexible part while the antenna ground plane and the dipole antenna balun are placed in the rigid part.

The 5 GHz Wireless LAN (802.11a) is a popular standard for wireless indoor communications providing moderate range and speed. Combined with the emerging ultra Wideband standard (UWB) for short range and high speed communications, the two standards promise to fulfil all areas of wireless application needs. However, due to the overlapping of the two spectrums, the stronger 802.11a signals tend to interfere causing degradation to the UWB receiver. This presents one of the main technical challenges preventing the wide acceptance of UWB. The research work presented in this thesis is to propose a low cost RF receiver front-end filter topology that would resolve the narrowband (NB) interference to UWB receiver while being operable in both 802.11a mode and UWB mode. The goal of the dual mode filter design is to reduce cost and complexity by developing a fully integrated front-end filter. The filter design utilizes high Q passive devices and Q-enhancement technique to provide front-end channel-selection in NB mode and NB interference rejection in UWB mode. In the 802.11a NB mode, the filter has a tunable gain of 4 dB to 25 dB, NF of 8 dB and an IIP3 between -47 dBm and -18 dBm. The input impedance is matched at -16 dB. The frequency of operation can be tuned from 5.15 GHz to 5.35 GHz. In the UWB mode, the filter has a gain of 0 dB to 8 dB across 3.1 GHz to 9 GHz. The filter can reject the NB interference between 5.15 GHz to 5.35 GHz at up to 60 dB. The Q of the filter is tunable up to a 250 while consuming a maximum of 23.4 mW of power. The fully integrated dual mode filter occupies a die area of 1.1 mm2.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an appealing transmission technology for short-range, bandwidth demanded wireless communications. With the data rate of several hundred megabits per second, UWB demonstrates great potential in supporting multimedia streams such as high-definition television (HDTV), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and console gaming in office or home networks, known as the wireless personal area network (WPAN). While vast research effort has been made on the physical layer issues of UWB, the corresponding medium access control (MAC) protocols that exploit UWB technology have not been well developed. Given an extremely wide bandwidth of UWB, a fundamental problem on how to manage multiple users to efficiently utilize the bandwidth is a MAC design issue. Without explicitly considering the physical properties of UWB, existing MAC protocols are not optimized for UWB-based networks. In addition, the limited processing capability of UWB devices poses challenges to the design of low-complexity MAC protocols. In this thesis, we comprehensively investigate the MAC protocols for UWB networks. The objective is to link the physical characteristics of UWB with the MAC protocols to fully exploit its advantage. We consider two themes: centralized and distributed UWB networks. For centralized networks, the most critical issue surrounding the MAC protocol is the resource allocation with fairness and quality of service (QoS) provisioning. We address this issue by breaking down into two scenarios: homogeneous and heterogeneous network configurations. In the homogeneous case, users have the same bandwidth requirement, and the objective of resource allocation is to maximize the network throughput. In the heterogeneous case, users have different bandwidth requirements, and the objective of resource allocation is to provide differentiated services. For both design objectives, the optimal scheduling problem is NP-hard. Our contributions lie in the development of low-complexity scheduling algorithms that fully exploit the characteristics of UWB. For distributed networks, the MAC becomes node-based problems, rather than link-based problems as in centralized networks. Each node either contends for channel access or reserves transmission opportunity through negotiation. We investigate two representative protocols that have been adopted in the WiMedia specification for future UWB-based WPANs. One is a contention-based protocol called prioritized channel access (PCA), which employs the same mechanisms as the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) in IEEE 802.11e for providing differentiated services. The other is a reservation-based protocol called distributed reservation protocol (DRP), which allows time slots to be reserved in a distributed manner. Our goal is to identify the capabilities of these two protocols in supporting multimedia applications for UWB networks. To achieve this, we develop analytical models and conduct detailed analysis for respective protocols. The proposed analytical models have several merits. They are accurate and provide close-form expressions with low computational effort. Through a cross-layer approach, our analytical models can capture the near-realistic protocol behaviors, thus useful insights into the protocol can be obtained to improve or fine-tune the protocol operations. The proposed models can also be readily extended to incorporate more sophisticated considerations, which should benefit future UWB network design.