An Electronic Circuit System for Time-Reversal of Ultra-Wideband Short Impulses Based on Frequency-Domain Approach

In this paper, a compact and low-cost electronic circuit system is designed for time-reversal of ultra-wideband short impulses (with nanosecond and sub-nanosecond temporal durations). A frequency-domain approach is adopted to avoid high sampling rate in time. Specifically, the proposed system obtains the discrete spectra of input impulses first; then realizes time-reversal in frequency domain; and finally synthesizes the time-reversed impulses using discrete continuous wave elements. This system is composed of common and commercially available circuits, and hence, can embody a system-on-chip implementation. Its performance is verified by circuit-electromagnetic co-simulations using impulses with 3–10-GHz frequency band coverage. Advanced Design System and two full-wave Maxwell's equations solvers are used for circuit and electromagnetic simulations, respectively, and their results are coupled and integrated. In the circuit part, most of nonidealities of realistic circuits are taken into account. It is shown by the simulation results that, although realistic circuits unavoidably introduce errors to time-reversal, such errors do not affect the “focusing” phenomena in the context of electromagnetic wave propagation. As a conclusion, the proposed system can be deployed in practical time-reversal communication and radar applications.