One Mbps 1 nJ/b 3.5-4 GHz Fully Integrated FM-UWB Transmitter for WBAN Applications

This paper introduces a fully integrated frequency-modulated ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitter implemented in 130 nm CMOS technology. The 3.5-4 GHz band transmitter involves a phase-locked loop (PLL)-based binary frequency-shift keying subcarrier generator to provide the modulated triangular waveform. The RF signal is generated using a voltage-controlled oscillator and modulated by the triangular signal resulting in a constant-envelope UWB signal. A PLL-based RF calibration scheme is employed to calibrate the lower and the upper frequencies of the modulated RF signal. The purpose of this novel calibration structure is to keep transmitting in a fixed emission band. A Class-AB power amplifier is utilized to amplify the modulated RF signal and drive the antenna through an integrated matching network. The transmitter occupies 0.124 mm(2) silicon area and consumes 987 mu W from a 1.2 V supply. It achieves an energy consumption of 0.987 nJ/bit at 1 Mbps data rate.