A polar transmitter is provided. The polar transmitter includes a baseband generation unit configured to generate phase data bits and amplitude data bits of an output pulse. The polar transmitter further includes a bandwidth control unit downstream to the baseband generation unit configured to regulate the width of the output pulse. Moreover, the polar transmitter includes a pulse shaping unit downstream to the bandwidth control unit configured to generate a predefined amplitude envelope of the output pulse. In this context, the pulse shaping unit includes a delay-line with a plurality of taps, where each tap output is configured to be amplitude weighted in order to generate the amplitude envelope of the output pulse.

A method is provided for radar ranging using an IR-UWB radar transceiver. The range is determined by measuring a time required by a transmitted pulse to be reflected by an object and returned to the transceiver. The method includes transmitting a ranging signal having a predetermined sequence of positive and negative pulses using a transmitter of the transceiver. A receiver of the transceiver receives a signal having a reflected portion and a feedthrough portion. In the method, the receiver cancels the feedthrough portion using a delayed pulse polarity signal such that when the delayed pulse polarity signal is multiplied and accumulated with the received signal, the feedthrough portion is canceled, and the reflected portion is amplified. In another embodiment, a transceiver is provided that cancels the feedthrough portion while amplifying the reflected portion. Cancelling the feedthrough portion allows short-range operation by removing a blind range of the transceiver.

A wearable electronic device includes a watch body including a touch-sensitive display configured to receive a first input and a first wireless circuit configured to receive a wireless input signal. The wearable electronic device further includes a band coupled to the watch body and configured to attach the watch body to a user and a wireless module coupled to the band and including an input device configured to receive a second input and a second wireless circuit configured to transmit the wireless input signal to the first wireless circuit in response to receiving the second input.

Some embodiments include a system and method for enabling communicating Ultra Wideband (UWB) devices to collaborate by exchanging pulse shape information. The UWB devices use the pulse shape information to improve ranging accuracy. The improved ranging accuracy can be used in complex multipath environments where advanced estimation schemes are used to extract an arriving path for time-of-flight estimation. To determine the pulse shape information to be shared, some embodiments include determining location information of a UWB device and selecting the pulse shape information that satisfies regional aspects. The pulse shape information includes a time-zero index specific to a ranging signal that is used by UWB receivers to establish timestamps time-of-flight calculations. Some embodiments include measuring performance characteristics and selecting different pulse shape information based on the performance characteristics for improved accuracy.

Within many applications impulse radio based ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transmission offers significant benefits for very short range high data rate communications when compared with existing standards and protocols. In many of these applications the main design goals are very low power consumption and very low complexity design for easy integration and cost reduction. Digitally programmable IR-UWB transmitters using an on-off keying modulation scheme on a 0.13 microns CMOS process operating on 1.2 V supply and yielding power consumption as low as 0.9 mW at a 10 Mbps data rate with dynamic power control are enabled. The IR-UWB transmitters support new frequency hopping techniques providing more efficient spectrum usage and dynamic allocation of the spectrum when transmitting in highly congested frequency bands. Biphasic scrambling is also introduced for spectral line reduction. Additionally, an energy detection receiver for IR-UWB is presented to similarly meet these design goals whilst being adaptable to address IR-UWB transmitter specificity.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Today's leading edge modulated sinusoidal wave wireless communication standards and systems achieve power efficiencies of 50 nJ/bit employing narrowband signaling schemes and traditional RF transceiver architectures. However, such designs severely limit the achievable energy efficiency, especially at lower data rates such as below 1 Mbps. Further, it is important that peak power consumption is supportable by common battery or energy harvesting technologies and long term power consumption neither leads to limited battery lifetimes or an inability for alternate energy sources to sustain them. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for next generation applications to exploit inventive transceiver structures and communication schemes in order to achieve the sub nJ per bit energy efficiencies required by next generation applications.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Today's leading edge modulated sinusoidal wave wireless communication standards and systems achieve power efficiencies of 50 nJ/bit employing narrowband signaling schemes and traditional RF transceiver architectures. However, such designs severely limit the achievable energy efficiency, especially at lower data rates such as below 1 Mbps. Further, it is important that peak power consumption is supportable by common battery or energy harvesting technologies and long term power consumption neither leads to limited battery lifetimes or an inability for alternate energy sources to sustain them. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for next generation applications to exploit inventive transceiver structures and communication schemes in order to achieve the sub nJ per bit energy efficiencies required by next generation applications.

Within many applications impulse radio based ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transmission offers significant benefits for very short range high data rate communications when compared with existing standards and protocols. In many of these applications the main design goals are very low power consumption and very low complexity design for easy integration and cost reduction. Digitally programmable IR-UWB transmitters using an on-off keying modulation scheme on a 0.13 microns CMOS process operating on 1.2V supply and yielding power consumption as low as 0.9 mW at a 10 Mbps data rate with dynamic power control are enabled. The IR-UWB transmitters support new frequency hopping techniques providing more efficient spectrum usage and dynamic allocation of the spectrum when transmitting in highly congested frequency bands. Biphasic scrambling is also introduced for spectral line reduction. Additionally, an energy detection receiver for IR-UWB is presented to similarly meet these design goals whilst being adaptable to address IR-UWB transmitter specificity.

Systems and methods for operating a communication device. The methods comprise: receiving a carrier signal modulated with a modulation signal comprising a symbol conveyed in a symbol timing window; determining an energy value for each timeslot in the symbol timing window; combining the energy values to determine a combined energy value for each bit of the symbol in a manner in which the combined energy value is penalized if more than one timeslot of the symbol timing window comprises energy contained in the carrier signal; and generating a soft value for each bit of the sequence of bits by combining the combined energy value with a weight value, where the weight value is selected from a plurality of weight values based on a number of timeslots in the symbol timing window which comprises energy contained in the carrier signal.

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology exploits modulated coded impulses over a wide frequency spectrum with very low power over a short distance for digital data transmission. Today's leading edge modulated sinusoidal wave wireless communication standards and systems achieve power efficiencies of 50 nJ/bit employing narrowband signaling schemes and traditional RF transceiver architectures. However, such designs severely limit the achievable energy efficiency, especially at lower data rates such as below 1 Mbps. Further, it is important that peak power consumption is supportable by common battery or energy harvesting technologies and long term power consumption neither leads to limited battery lifetimes or an inability for alternate energy sources to sustain them. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for next generation applications to exploit inventive transceiver structures and communication schemes in order to achieve the sub nJ per bit energy efficiencies required by next generation applications.