An FSK inductive-coupling transceiver using 60 mV 0.64 fJ/bit 0.0016 mm2 load-modulated transmitter and LC-oscillator-based receiver in 65 nm CMOS for energy-budget-unbalanced application

Abstract

This work presents an FSK inductive-coupling transceiver using a load-modulated transmitter and LC-oscillator-based receiver for energy-budget-unbalanced applications. By introducing the time-domain load modulated transmitter for FSK instead of the conventional current-driven scheme, energy reduction of the transmitter side is possible. For verifying the proposed scheme, a test chip was fabricated in 65 nm CMOS, and two chips were stacked for verifying the inter-chip communication. The measurement results show 0.64 fJ/bit transmitter power consumption while its input voltage is 60 mV, and the communication distance is 150 μm. The footprint of the transmitter is 0.0016 mm2