Abstract
This paper presents an extremely cost-effective radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) implementation technique by employing a digital logic CMOS process and reducing area occupation for voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using all miniature inductors for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. The designed VCO operates in the 4.0 GHz band with a power consumption of 1.4 mW and a phase noise of −113.6 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz, occupying a Si area of 0.283 × 0.682 mm2. In addition, we confirmed that the figure of merit (FOM) of 183.8 in our design is competitive with that of other LC-VCOs that were fabricated using the RF option and designed with conventional inductors.
Highlights
With the rapid proliferation of wireless applications, the demand for power and cost-effective radios has significantly increased [1]
Processing and a minimum number of off-chip components, since a typical sensor network consists of a large number of small, low-cost nodes that use wireless point-to-point communication to construct a self-organized network [3]. From this point of view, to save the cost of a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) for the wireless sensor network (WSN) unit cell, our design approach was focused on ensuring circuit area minimization and adopting cost-effective CMOS processes, respectively
Many miniature voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using asymmetric-helical spirals embedded in core LC tanks or harmonic-rejection filters have been reported [4,5]
Summary
With the rapid proliferation of wireless applications, the demand for power and cost-effective radios has significantly increased [1]. For this case, saving the unit cost is sometimes more important than extended lifetimes, combined with progress in CMOS and MEMS processing and a minimum number of off-chip components, since a typical sensor network consists of a large number of small, low-cost nodes that use wireless point-to-point communication to construct a self-organized network [3] From this point of view, to save the cost of a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) for the WSN unit cell, our design approach was focused on ensuring circuit area minimization and adopting cost-effective CMOS processes, respectively. 6-metal) signals; no process changes were made to improve the high-frequency characteristics of the devices
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