Ultra-wideband Orthogonal Frequency Coded Saw Correlators

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication new technology with ability to share the FCC allocated frequency spectrum, large channel capacity and data rate, simple transceiver architecture and high performance in noisy environments. Such communication advantages have paved the way for emerging wireless technologies such as wireless high definition video streaming, wireless sensor networks and more. This thesis examines orthogonal frequency coded surface acoustic wave (SAW) correlators for use in advanced UWB communication systems. Orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) and pseudo-noise (PN) coding provides a means for UWB spreading of data. The use of OFC spectrally spreads a PN sequence beyond that of CDMA because of the increased bandwidth; allowing for improved correlation gain. The transceiver approach is still very similar to that of the CDMA approach but provides greater code diversity. Use of SAW correlators eliminates many of the costly components that are needed in the IF block in the transmitter and receiver, and reduces much of the signal processing requirements. The OFC SAW correlator device consists of a dispersive OFC transducer and a wideband output transducer. The dispersive filter was designed using seven contiguous chip frequencies within the transducer. Each chip is weighted in the transducer to account for the varying conductance of the chips and to compensate for the output transducer apodization. Experimental correlator results of an OFC SAW correlation filter are presented. The dispersive filter is designed using seven contiguous chip frequencies within the transducer. SAW correlators with fractional bandwidth of approximately 29% were fabricated on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) having a center frequency of 250 MHz and the filter has a processing gain of 49. A coupling of modes (COM) model is used to predict the experimental SAW filter response. Discussion of the filter design, analysis and measurements are presented. Results are shown for operation in a matched filter correlator for use in an UWB communication system and compared to predictions