(Jan 8) Circuit and System Designs for Milimeter Scale Internet of Things

The next generation of computing platforms increases proximity to the source of information rather than to humans, allowing much more aggressive miniaturization. The key technology for miniaturization had been process scaling, which had reduced the silicon area, increased computational capability and lowered power consumption. However, the latest deep-submicron technologies do not fit well with mm-scale computing because of the increased leakage current. Therefore, advances in circuit level techniques are critical to realizing networks of mm-scale computing platforms. Consequently, promising circuit research outcomes have been published in various areas of medical care, environmental monitoring and surveillance. Such wireless sensor nodes require new circuit techniques as they are placed in a very distinct operating environment with specialized purposes compared to conventional applications. Ultra-low power consumption is one of the most challenging constraints resulting from the form factor of the system. 

This talk, based on recent publications, introduces circuit techniques for the key building blocks of a miniaturized sensor node such as an ultra-low power wake-up timer, an energy efficient sensor front-end, a wireless power transfer circuit with high sensitivity and a reconfigurable frequency synthesizer with noise self-adjustment capability. Finally, the system-level design of a miniaturized GNSS receiver is introduced.