This paper presents a ultra low-power, low-complexity circuit to generate the monocycle pulse for Impulse Radio UWB (IR-UWB) applications. A 7th order derivative Gaussian pulse is generated using the edge combination technique plus an extra derivative circuitry. The proposed pulse generator is designed using TSMC 0.18 m CMOS process. Simulation shows 500 mV of pulse amplitude and 800 ps of the pulse duration. Generated pulse spectrum fully complies with the FCC spectrum mask for out-door applications, especially in the range of 3.1–5.1 GHz. The pulse generator dissipates no static current with only dynamic energy consumption of around 4.7 pJ per pulse from 1.5 V supply.
After a trademark dispute, the EPC Prototyping Platform is now called "Fosstrak" (previously Accada). Fosstrak stands for "free and open source software for track and trace".