User's Manual

P412 User’s Manual & Data Sheet 3
Overview
This document is the user’s manual and data sheet for the Time Domain PulsON 412 (“P412”) Ultra
Wideband (UWB) ranging radio transceiver. The document is divided into the following sections.
Section 1 Summary and Theory of Operation
Section 2 Using a P412 as a Ranging Radio
Section 3 Hardware Block Diagram
Section 4 Interfaces
Section 5 Mechanical
Section 6 Performance Specs
Section 7 Broadspec Antenna
Section 8 FCC Compliance
Section 9 Export Restrictions
1 Summary and Theory of Operation
The P412 is an Ultra Wideband (UWB) radio transceiver that provides the following functions:
• It accurately and reliably measures the distance between two P412s and provides these
measurements at a high update rate.
• It supports two different range measurement techniques (Two-Way Time-of-Flight and
Coarse Range Estimation).
• It communicates data between two or more P412s.
Time Domain’s PulsON P412 is a ruggedized, industrial UWB platform. The most obvious and
important characteristics of the device relative to industrial operation are listed below:
• The electrical interface to the unit through USB, Serial or CAN
• All components are rated for industrial temperature (-40C to +85C)
• Fan is not required for cooling.
• For best performance, the user must provide a heat sink to insure that the unit does not
overheat
• The board is provided with nine large (#6) mounting holes that insure that the unit will
survive and operate in most high vibration environments
• RF filtering provides superior operation in the presence of 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz
• The UWB emissions have been tested and comply with FCC 15.519 which is the most
stringent of the FCC UWB limits
• The digital emissions have been tested and comply with the FCC 15.109(b) (“Class A digital
device”) which limits use of the P412 to commercial and industrial uses only
The P412 is an Ultra Wideband radio that coherently transmits and receives trains of individual RF
pulses at a nominal rate of 10 MHz. Figure 1 provides a notional example of a typical UWB pulse
in both the time and frequency domain. Pulses are transmitted as coded trains of pulses. Coding is
accomplished either by pseudo-randomly shifting the pulse phase or inter pulse transmission time.
By transmitting and receiving pulses coherently, the P412 can integrate multiple pulses and thereby
increase the received signal to noise ratio. Integration can therefore be used to increase robustness
and or operational range.