An Ultra-Low-Power Energy-Harvesting Wireless Transmitter with Nanowatt Duty-Cycled Operation for Autonomous Sensor Networks
Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/Report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
This paper presents and investigates an ultra-low-power wireless transmitter (TX), fabricated in a standard 130nm BiCMOS technology for energy-harvesting sensor network applications, and demonstrates its operation when powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The proposed ultra-low-power transmitter enables battery-less short-range communication while maintaining a compact feature size. To achieve low-power operation, the transmitter employs injection-locking and frequency-multiplication techniques for ultra-low-power frequency synthesis, combined with on-off keying (OOK) modulation and an integrated duty-cycling mechanism for further power reduction. Operating in the 433MHz ISM band and supplied by dual voltages of 0.25V and 0.9V, the TX delivers -21dBm output power with a continuous-mode power consumption of approximately 100μW. Under aggressive duty-cycling, the average power is reduced to the nanowatt range (≈ 150nW), enabling operation from a compact thermoelectric generator driven by a small body-to-ambient temperature difference (ΔT< 10°C). The fabricated chip occupies an active area of 0.019mm2. These results demonstrate a significant advancement toward fully integrated, energy-autonomous wireless transmitters for wearable and industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications.
Details
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | ISCAS 2026 - 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems |
| Publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |
| Pages | 2952-2956 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| ISBN (electronic) | 979-8-3315-7769-8 |
| ISBN (print) | 979-8-3315-7770-4 |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2026 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Publication series
| Series | Proceedings - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems |
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| ISSN | 0271-4310 |
Conference
| Title | IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems 2026 |
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| Subtitle | Circuits and Systems for Intelligent Society |
| Abbreviated title | ISCAS 2026 |
| Duration | 24 - 27 May 2026 |
| Website | |
| Location | Shanghai International Convention Center |
| City | Shanghai |
| Country | China |
External IDs
| ORCID | /0000-0001-6778-7846/work/222762126 |
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Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Autonomous communication, duty-cycling, edge-combiner, energy-harvesting, Internet of Things, low-power, ring oscillator, transmitter