Ultra low power wake-up radio using envelope detector and transmission line voltage transformer

Abstract

An ultra-low power wake-up radio receiver using no oscillators is described. The radio utilizes an envelope detector followed by a baseband amplifier and is fabricated in a 130-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. The receiver is preceded by a passive radio-frequency voltage transformer, also providing 50 ω antenna matching, fabricated as transmission lines on the FR4 chip carrier. A sensitivity of -47 dBm with 200 kb/s on-off keying modulation is measured at a current consumption of 2.3 μ A from a 1 V supply. No trimming is used. The receiver accepts a -13 dBm continuous wave blocking signal, or modulated blockers 6 dB below the sensitivity limit, with no loss of sensitivity. © 2011 IEEE.