Sub-50μW, 2.4 GHz super-regenerative transceiver with ultra low duty cycle and a 675μW high impedance super-regenerative receiver

Abstract

This paper describes how duty cycling can reduce the power consumption of an On Off Keying (OOK), 2.4 GHz, super regenerative transceiver from 400 muW for the transmit (Tx) to 30 muW and from 380 muW for the receive (Rx) to 10 muW. This is a power reduction of 92.5 % for the Tx and 97.4 % for the Rx. Despite the low power consumption exhibited by the Tx an effective output power of -11 dBm is achieved. This is due to the fact that the Tx oscillator is turned on for a very short period of time compared to the bit period. The output of the Rx is then lengthened digitally to reproduce the correct duty cycle. The duty cycled Rx achieves an output voltage of 1 mV for an input power of -50 dBm. Also presented is a high impedance receiver which produces an output of 5 mV for an input power of -90 dBm.