Circuits and Active Antennas for Ultra- Wide Band Pulse Generation and Transmis- Sion

Abstract—In this paper, the design and development of a novel active antenna including circuits for Ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse generation and transmission have been described. In this design a pulse with pulse-width approximately 150 ps and amplitude 500 mV (peak-topeak) was generated using a single high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) as the active device (and an optional Schottky diode for enhanced performance), this being the simplest circuit for generating UWB pulses as far as we know. This circuit was integrated with a newly designed UWB planar microstrip-fed slot antenna, which is an active antenna in the sense that in addition to radiating the signal, it also acts as a filter, which tailors the spectrum of the transmitted pulse to a shape close to that recommended for UWB communications. We have also given a quantitative analysis, which explains the operation of the circuit.