Wireless communication
Ultralow power wireless communication
Today’s wireless transducer systems typically use Bluetooth or ZigBee chipsets, or they use proprietary radios that operate most often in the ISM band. The autonomy of such systems is seriously limited by the power consumption of the radios, typically 80% of the sensor node’s total power budget.
Imec and Holst Centre, an open innovation center set up by imec and TNO, are looking into techniques and devices that reduce this heavy power drain. The power consumption of these novel wireless communication chipsets is 10 to 100 times lower than the commercial equivalents.
These solutions are a key enabler for a new generation of wireless sensor networks, to be used in wireless body area networks (WBAN), machinery, or intelligent buildings. They allow a drastic autonomy, a much smaller form factor thanks to a reduced battery size, or the inclusion of more intelligence in the sensors.
Imec and Holst Centre develop and implement the analog front-ends and the required baseband algorithms, and integrate them in silicon. Also the essential features of the MAC are implemented.These functions are integrated in small form-factor prototypes, either SoC (systems-on-chip) or SiP (systems-in-package) that can be used for demonstration purposes.
Imec and Holst Centre are currently focusing on three types of radios, each optimized for a set of applications.
- Impulse UWB radios offering a unique combination of medium to high data rate (0.1 to 20Mbps) with record low power consumption (less than 5mW @ 1Mbps). Ideal for realtime streaming of a continuous flow of data. Our impulse UWB radios support the IEEE 802.15.4a and IEEE 802.15.6 standards.
- Narrow-band radios optimized for ultralow power WBAN, and operating in the worldwide available 2.4GHz ISM band. Our narrow-band radio is aligned with the emerging IEEE 802.15.6 standard for body-area networks.
- Event-driven radios operating in the 2.4GHz ISM band and consuming only 50μW when permanently scanning the reception channel. These can be used as low data-rate radios in, e.g. active RFID applications, or as a wake-up radio, i.e. a secondary radio that is used to wake up the main radio on request.
