A damping pulse generator based on regenerated trigger switch

Abstract

This paper presents a new microwave pulse generator based on a positive feedback scheme. The positive feedback is proposed to produce a quick regenerated trigger switch to spark an LC circuit and then generate a shock pulse. The proposed circuit does not need any edge-sharpener circuit or over-sized transistors and hence requires a small chip area. A testing prototype is fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology (fmax ≈ 40 GHz). A 120-mV peak-to-peak pulse output at a center frequency of 13.4GHz with a wide bandwidth of 7.46 GHz is measured. The pulse center frequency is achieved with 33.5% of the fmax. The proposed pulse generator is suitable for transmitter design in low-cost low-power wideband sensing network applications.