AETHER WIRE & LOCATION, INC.

ULTRA-WIDEBAND LOCALIZERS
Executive Summary

Knowing position location is of immense value to many military and 
commercial applications. The significant cost and size reduction 
of GPS receivers has fueled awareness of this fact in recent years. 

Aether Wire has developed a position location and communication system 
which overcomes the limitations that make other location systems unsuitable 
for most imagined applications. Other localization systems give absolute 
position on the geoid (i.e. GPS), location relative to fixed beacons (e.g. 
LORAN), or location relative to a starting point (i.e. inertial platforms). 

For most applications, what is really desired is location relative to other
people or objects, whether moving or stationary, or the location within a
building or an area. Moreover, the range and resolution of the position
location needs to be proportionate to the scale of the objects being located.

Aether Wire's system provides relative position location within a 
network of RF transceivers (Localizers) distributed in the environment.
Our technology is capable of localization to centimeter accuracy over 
kilometer distances, and unlike GPS, can operate within buildings, 
urban areas, or forests. Also, our Localizers inherently share 
position location information throughout the network, while most 
other localization systems require a separate communication channel.

The most significant aspect of Aether Wire's technology is that 
Localizers can be totally integrated in low-cost CMOS circuits. The 
combination of communication andaccurate position location capability 
within devices that are essentially "throw-away," opens up a host of 
applications. A sampling of military and commercial applications 
includes:

# Monitoring large numbers of sensors dispersed over an area for nuclear, 
  biological, or chemical threats.

# Geospatial registration for warfighter visualization.

# Synthesis of large aperture antennas for tight beam communication, 
  using scattered transceivers that know their precise relative location 
  and synchronization.

# Survey and construction.

# Keeping track of mines, armaments, equipment, vehicles, etc.

# Keeping track of personal items, such as one's children, pets, car, 
  purse, luggage, etc.

# Inventory control in stores, warehouses, shipyards, railroad yards, etc.

# Safety - Finding fire fighters in a burning building, police officers in 
  distress, or injured skiers on a ski slope.

# Sports - Arbitrating rules in a game, playback of motions for coaching, 
  or viewing the re-creation of an event.

# Home automation - Keyless locks and rooms that adjust the light, 
  temperature, and music sound level.

# Motion pictures - Automatically adjusting camera focus and motion-
  tracking for matching digital effects

Position location is determined by sharing range information within a 
network of transceivers that resolve their separation by cooperatively 
exchanging an electromagnetic signal. The accuracy of this range 
determination is a function of the bandwidth of the exchanged signal. 

With conventional sinewave technology, the bandwidth of the signal 
relative to the carrier frequency is very small - at most a few 
percent using spread spectrum. Ultra-wideband signals, consisting of 
electromagnetic impulses, have a relative bandwidth approaching 100%. 
Historically, ultra-wideband radiation has been used almost exclusively 
for anti-stealth and ground-probing radar. However, ultra-wideband 
radiation has unique advantages when used, at much lower power levels 
than radar, for communication and position location:.

Centimeter-level accuracy in determining range is possible without 
using expensive microwave (GaAs MMIC) technology, because gigahertz 
bandwidth is obtained without a carrier in the 50 GHz range.
Transceivers can be made very small (i.e. coin size), low power, 
low weight, and low cost because the electronics can be completely 
integrated in CMOS without any inductive components. MEMS can be 
used to integrate the resonator for the timebase on chip as well.
The antennas can be equally small, and can be driven directly by 
CMOS, because they are non-resonant, current-mode, and low voltage.
Ultra-wideband signals form a shadow spectrum which can coexist and 
does not interfere with the sinewave spectrum. The transmitted power 
is spread over such a large bandwidth that the amount of power in 
any narrow frequency band is very small.

The good features of spread spectrum are shared, including multipath 
immunity, tolerance of interference from other radio sources, and 
inherent privacy from eavesdropping (low probability of intercept).
Ultra-wideband signals have very good penetrating capabilities. 
Transceivers can operate within buildings, urban areas, and forests.

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Source: Aether Wire & Location, Inc.
http://www.aetherwire.com/CDROM/General/AWL/execsum.html


Cheers, Steve..

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