imec debuts multi standard short range radio at ISSCC
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An ultra low power, multi standard 2.3/2.4GHz short range radio has been presented by imec and Holst Centre at the IEEE's International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.
The 1.9nJ/b radio is compliant with three wireless standards: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ZigBee (IEEE802.15.4) and Medical Body Area Networks (MBAN, IEEE802.15.6).
A proprietary 2Mb/s mode is also implemented to support data streaming applications like hearing aids.
The radio is said to be three to five times more power efficient than current BLE solutions.
Harmke De Groot, programme director of ultra low power circuits at imec/Holst Centre, said: "The radio often consumes between 50 and 85% of the overall power consumption of a sensor system.
"And for autonomous devices, with only a small battery and thus limited battery energy, the power consumption of commercially available short range radios is rather high (>15mW dc power)."
The radio is implemented in 90nm cmos technology and is designed to achieve a dc power of only 3.8mW at 1.2V supply for the receiver and 4.6mW for the transmitter.
