A UWB Pulse with Precursor for ToA Measurement

The leading edge of a transmitted pulse shape plays an important role in the estimation of the Time of Arrival (ToA) of the pulse by a receiver. This is particularly the case for indoor, multipath environments, in which the trailing edge and to some extent the peak of the pulse may well be corrupted by following multipath components. It is therefore proposed that an asymmetric Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) pulse shape is used with a steep leading edge, generated by a modest precursor pulse with the opposite carrier phase to improve close-in multipath robustness. An integrated circuit implementation and experiments show such a pulse can meet the spectrum mask and improve the ToA measurement performance.