Coherent V-Band Pulse Generator for Impulse Radio BPSK

A coherent pulse generator for implementation in an impulse radio system is presented. It accurately transforms a 12.5 GHz square wave input signal to 33 ps long 60 GHz pulses. The wavelets are generated through direct conversion from baseband to 60 GHz by switching a negative differential conductance oscillator on and off. The slope of the input signal determines the phase, which is either I + or I -. The generator is feasible for use in coherent radio systems since the method shows consistent startup and decay of the generated wavelets. The coherence between the input baseband signal and wavelet output signal is demonstrated in an eye diagram with rms jitter <; 1.3 ps. The oscillator is implemented with a gated resonant tunneling diode where the input level also can be used to tune the center frequency of the wavelets.