Overview of ultra-wideband transceivers—system architectures and applications

The Ultra-WideBand (UWB) technique, which offers good energy efficiency, flexible data rate, and high ranging accuracy, has recently been recognized as a revived wireless technology for short distance communication. This paper presents a brief overview of two UWB techniques, covering Impulse-Radio UWB (IR-UWB) and Frequency-Modulation UWB (FM-UWB) methods. The link margin enhancement technique, Very-WideBand (VWB), and power consumption reducing technique, chirp UWB, are also introduced. Then, several potential applications of IR-UWB with transceiver architectures are addressed, including high data rate proximity communication and secure wireless connectivity. With fine-ranging and energy-efficient communication features, the UWB wireless technology is highly promising for secure mobile Internet of Things (IoT) applications.