I am trying to make a pulse generator that will generate pulses as short as 1 ns, with voltages around 1V. It would be triggered by an external signal. I am wondering whether anyone makes a single chip solution for this type of thing, or if someone knows a communications IC that could be easily modified to do this? And it would be great if it came with an evaluation board, though I realize I am reaching on that point. (Still, unless you enjoy torture, soldering surface mount components is something I like to avoid.)
As I've searched on the net, most DIY pulse generator circuits involve avalanche circuits which seem to require relatively high voltages and are a little unstable. Linear has a circuit that uses comparators with an AND gate to produce a pulse, and that seems to be pretty workable. I've also thought it wouldn't be that hard to combine an inverter with an AND gate and a delay line IC to produce an output pulse, provided the transitions didn't excessively widen the pulse.