A 1V wireless transceiver for an ultra low power SoC for biotelemetry applications

Abstract

This paper presents a IV RF transceiver implemented as part of an ultra low power system-on-chip (SoC), the Sensium , for wireless body area sensor network (WBASN) applications. Operating in the 862-870 MHz European short- range-device (SRD) or the 902-928 MHz North American Industrial, Scientific & Medical (ISM) frequency bands, the transceiver utilizes digital 2-level FSK modulation at a data rate of 50 kbit/s to provide wireless connectivity between target sensor nodes and a central base-station node. The wireless transceiver operates half-duplex and achieves -102 dBm receiver input sensitivity (for raw 1E-3 bit error rate) and up to -7 dBm transmitter output power through a single antenna port. It consumes 2.1 mA during receive and up to 2.6 mA during transmit from a 1.0 to 1.5 V supply. This surpasses state-of-the- art in terms of performance versus power consumption. It is fabricated in a 0.13 mum CMOS technology and occupies approximately 7 mm in a SoC die size of 4x4 mm .