Demonstration of 50 ps Per-Position Differential Pulse Position Modulation Data Transmission

To prolong the lifespan of devices with a limited power budget, efficient modulation schemes, such as pulse position modulation (PPM), can be employed. High-order differential pulse position modulation (DPPM), which can be efficiently demodulated using an event timer, presents advantages over other PPM modulation methods because it can provide higher data rates and does not require synchronization. This research aims to demonstrate data transmission using high-order DPPM signal in a laboratory environment and measure bit error ratio (BER) for position widths 50-200 ps. In the theoretical part, an assessment of data transmission rate dependence from the position count and position width of DPPM signal with guard time is presented. Moreover, a theoretical comparison in terms of power efficiency and maximum data rate with other types of PPM, such as transmitted reference pulse-position modulation (TR-PPM), is made. In the experimental part, the performance measurements of DPPM communication system consisting of arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) as DPPM transmitter and Eventech A033-ET/USB event timer as digital-to-time converter (DTC) of DPPM receiver are presented.