7.4 A 915MHz asymmetric radio using Q-enhanced amplifier for a fully integrated 3×3×3mm<sup>3</sup> wireless sensor node with 20m non-line-of-sight communication

Chuo, Li-Xuan; Shi, Yao; Luo, Zhihong; Chiotellis, Nikolaos; Foo, Zhiyoong; Kim, Gyouho; Kim, Yejoong; Grbic, Anthony; Wentzloff, David D.; Kim, Hun-Seok; Blaauw, David

doi:10.1109/isscc.2017.7870296

Cited by 36 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Chuo et al [34] consider the communication of a 3×3×3 mm 3 XTAL and PLL-free sensor node with a gateway, at 915 MHz. The system architecture is designed so as to resonate with the attached magnetic antenna at 915 MHz, in both RX and TX modes.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

et al. 2019

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The single chip integration of a wireless sensor node would allow for cheap, low-power, dust-size devices. The key to realizing this vision is to eliminate bulky off-chip frequency references such as crystal oscillators or resonators, and their associated power-hungry circuitry. The immediate challenge of removing off-chip references is that there is no accurate on-chip frequency references, which makes it hard to tune the radio to the right frequency, and to keep an accurate sense of time. This article offers a full solution for crystal-free devices, which includes (1) initiating communication in an IEEE802.15.4 network, (2) synthesizing the 16 communication channels at startup temperature, and (3) continuously applying corrections to the inaccurate timing source to allow keeping frequency synchronization on all communication channels over a 5-55 • C temperature range. The proposed methods are accompanied by simulations and an experimental validation on the first fully-functional Single Chip Micro Mote hardware implementation. Our simulations and experimental results validate that the proposed approach achieves radio clock synchronization accuracy close to the 40 ppm limit imposed by the IEEE802.15.4 standard.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The space savings of removing off-chip elements is significant. Wireless communication systems (''radio chips'') have been demonstrated that are as small as 0.46 mm 2 [14], 2.025 mm 2 [15], ≈ 4.4 mm 2 [16], ≈9 mm 2 [17]. As a point of comparison, the area occupied by a small crystal oscillator is ≈2 mm 2 [1], [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

et al. 2019

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“…PLL-based transmitters provide low phase noise and good frequency stability at the cost of increased power consumption. Nevertheless, in order to further reduce power, the PLL in the transmitter path can either be replaced by a high-quality (Q) oscillator, directly resonating at RF [9] or IF [26], or can fully be omitted by using a free running oscillator [3,8] at the cost of reduced frequency-and phase-stability, e.g. caused by temperature, supply voltage, or process variations.…”

Section: Energy-efficient Transceiver Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This results in an amplification of the received signal dependent on the quality of the LC-tank within the VCO. This concept is used in the so called injection-locked [3] or Q-enhanced [8] receivers. In order to improve sensitivity, the generic structure is easily modified to make use of the super-regenerative concept, originally proposed by Armstrong [2].…”

Section: Energy-efficient Transceiver Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From microwatt to gigabit: challenges of modern radio design

Pretl¹,

Faseth²,

Schumacher³

et al. 2018

Elektrotech. Inftech.

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On the brink of introducing the fifth generation (5G) of cellular networks, the art of radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuit design has never seen such a wide spread of diverging requirements:On the one hand, ubiquitous sensor networks are mandating power budgets in the order of micro-watt. They should be constructed as energy-autonomous, wireless, low-cost sensor nodes. This demand is caused by massive deployment scenarios of billions of devices, which makes wires and batteries unpractical. As a result, the desire for the radio nodes to harvest their operational energy from the environment emerges.On the other hand, the recent and ongoing realization of gigabit-per-second capable cellular modems is driving hardware and power requirements to extremes. To overcome hardware limitations, introduced by analog impairments, digital correction and alignment algorithms are employed for compensation. These factors call for usage of expensive advanced CMOS technology nodes and increased utilization of digital signal processing techniques.In this paper, we recap ongoing trends and developments for ultra-low power and high-end transceiver (TRX) designs using CMOS technology nodes ranging from low-cost to highest performance.Keywords: RF; ultra-low-power; wireless architectures; transceiver; mixed-signal circuits; 5G Von Mikrowatt zu Gigabit: Herausforderungen beim Design moderner Funkübertragungssysteme. Neben der Einführung der zellularen Mobilfunknetze der fünften Generation (5G) muss sich auch die integrierte HochfrequenzSchaltungstechnik einer noch nie dagewesenen Breite an unterschiedlichen Anforderungen stellen: Auf der einen Seite gibt es überall kabellose Sensornetzwerke, denen nur eine geringe Menge an Versorgungsleistung im MikrowattBereich zur Verfügung steht. Daher müssen die Chips in diesem Bereich energieautark und möglichst kostengünstig entwickelt werden. Aufgrund der zu erwartenden hohen Stückzahlen (Milliarden von unterschiedlichsten Sensoren für verschiedene Anwendungen) sind eine drahtgebundene Energieversorgung oder der Einsatz von Batterien in vielen Fällen praktisch unmöglich. Somit wird es für die Sensoren immer wichtiger, ihre Energieversorgung aus der Umgebung zu gewinnen (Stichwort Energy Harvesting).

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“…They rely on visible light communication using an LED and a photodiode with a communication range of 15.6 cm. Another 3M mote, measuring 3×3×3 mm 3 does include a more traditional RF transmitter [10]. Yet, because of the drift of its timing circuits, a highly-capable FPGA-based computer system is needed to receive the signals it sends, and mote-to-mote communication is not possible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

6TiSCH on SCμM: Running a Synchronized Protocol Stack without Crystals

Chang

Watteyne

Wheeler

et al. 2020

Sensors

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We report the first time-synchronized protocol stack running on a crystal-free device. We use an early prototype of the Single-Chip micro Mote, SCμM, a single-chip 2 × 3 mm2 mote-on-a-chip, which features an ARM Cortex-M0 micro-controller and an IEEE802.15.4 radio. This prototype consists of an FPGA version of the micro-controller, connected to the SCμM chip which implements the radio front-end. We port OpenWSN, a reference implementation of a synchronized protocol stack, onto SCμM. The challenge is that SCμM has only on-chip oscillators, with no absolute time reference such as a crystal. We use two calibration steps – receiving packets via the on-chip optical receiver and RF transceiver – to initially calibrate the oscillators on SCμM so that it can send frames to an off-the-shelf IEEE802.15.4 radio. We then use a digital trimming compensation algorithm based on tick skipping to turn a 567 ppm apparent drift into a 10 ppm drift. This allows us to run a full-featured standards-compliant 6TiSCH network between one SCμM and one OpenMote. This is a step towards realizing the smart dust vision of ultra-small and cheap ubiquitous wireless devices.

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7.4 A 915MHz asymmetric radio using Q-enhanced amplifier for a fully integrated 3×3×3mm³ wireless sensor node with 20m non-line-of-sight communication

Cited by 36 publications

References 2 publications

Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

From microwatt to gigabit: challenges of modern radio design

6TiSCH on SCμM: Running a Synchronized Protocol Stack without Crystals

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7.4 A 915MHz asymmetric radio using Q-enhanced amplifier for a fully integrated 3×3×3mm3 wireless sensor node with 20m non-line-of-sight communication

Cited by 36 publications

References 2 publications

Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

Dynamic Channel Calibration on a Crystal-Free Mote-on-a-Chip

From microwatt to gigabit: challenges of modern radio design

6TiSCH on SCμM: Running a Synchronized Protocol Stack without Crystals

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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7.4 A 915MHz asymmetric radio using Q-enhanced amplifier for a fully integrated 3×3×3mm³ wireless sensor node with 20m non-line-of-sight communication