Programmable Delay Line Based High-speed PPM Modulator with 50 ps Time Resolution
2023 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2023) 2023
Pauls Ēriks Šics, Oskars Šēlis, Sandis Migla, Māris Zeltiņš, Sandis Spolītis, Viktors Kurtenoks, Artūrs Āboltiņš

Energy efficiency is an important metric by which modern communications systems are evaluated. Pulse position modulation (PPM), which uses time intervals among pulses to encode the transmitted data, provides unlimited energy-saving opportunities at the cost of spectrum occupancy. Considering this excellent property, PPM is gaining attention as a candidate waveform for the next generation of long-distance and space communications, where energy efficiency and peak signal-to-noise ratio are the key factors. This paper is devoted to implementing and evaluating a high-speed transmitted reference pulse-position modulation (TR-PPM) modulator board that employs a digital-to-time converter (DTC) based on high-accuracy programmable delay line integrated circuits. The developed prototype can generate high-order TR-PPM signals with up to 256 pulse positions, having a time resolution of 40 ps. Using step recovery diodes (SRDs) at the front-end of the modulator allows for achieving a pulse duration of about 150 ps. The testing of the developed prototype has shown that the board can generate TR-PPM waveform with high accuracy and allows achieving data rates up to 20 Mbit/s.


Keywords
Pulse position modulation, energy efficiency, bit error rate, modulator
DOI
10.1109/PIERS59004.2023.10221245
Hyperlink
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10221245

Šics, P., Šēlis, O., Migla, S., Zeltiņš, M., Spolītis, S., Kurtenoks, V., Āboltiņš, A. Programmable Delay Line Based High-speed PPM Modulator with 50 ps Time Resolution. In: 2023 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2023), Czech Republic, Prague, 3-6 July, 2023. Piscataway: IEEE, 2023, pp.1779-1786. ISBN 979-8-3503-1285-0. e-ISBN 979-8-3503-1284-3. ISSN 2831-5790. e-ISSN 2831-5804. Available from: doi:10.1109/PIERS59004.2023.10221245

Publication language
English (en)
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