An FPGA Software-Defined Ultra Wideband Transceiver

Increasing interest in ultra-wideband (UWB) communications has engendered the need
for a test bed for UWB systems. An FPGA-based software-defined radio provides both post-
fabrication definition of the radio and ample parallel processing power. This thesis presents
the FPGA design for a software-defined radio targeted to impulse ultra-wideband signals.
The system is capable of an effective sampling frequency of up to 8 G-samples/s using time-
interleaved sampling with eight 1-GHz ADCs. The system is also capable of transmitting
UWB pulses using a transmitter board controlled by the FPGA. In this thesis, the FPGA
design used to capture and export data from the eight ADCs is presented, along with two
systems which make use of the transceiver: a pilot-based matched filter communications
system, and a remote vital signs monitor.

An FPGA Software-Dened Ultra Wideband Transceiver


Matthew Bruce Blanton




Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
in partial fulllment of the requirements for the degree of




Master of Science
in
Computer Engineering




Dr. Peter M. Athanas, Chair
Dr. Mark T. Jones
Dr. Cameron D. Patterson




August 28, 2006
Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Blacksburg, Virginia




Keywords: ultra-wideband, FPGA, software dened radio, high-speed