Electrical Engineering Glossary Definition for UWB

Definition

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a communications technology that employs a wide bandwidth (typically defined as greater than 20% of the center frequency or 500MHz). UWB is usually used in short-range wireless applications but can be sent over wires. Ultra-Wideband advantages are that it can carry high data rates with low power and little interference.

UWB is the modern version of older "impulse" technologies which are generated by very short pulses (impulse waveforms). They were called "carrier-free" or "baseband" because the energy is so widespread in the frequency domain that there is no discernible carrier frequency.

For a crude example, connect a metal file to one terminal of a battery and a wire to the other terminal. Brush the wire across the teeth of the file and note that the electrical noise can be heard on a radio tuned to just about any frequency.

The FCC authorizes UWB between 3.1 and 10.6GHz (but is not likely to approve devices that rely on a file and a wire.)

Synonyms

• Carrier-free
• Impulse
• Ultra-Wideband
• Baseband

Keywords

Ultra-Wideband, wide band, uwb

See Also

• Spread Spectrum
• Show site-wide search results for: "UWB"

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