Self calibrating high sensitivity ultra-low power envelope detector

Abstract

An amplitude demodulation system is described here. An envelope detector is connected to the non inverting input of a differential amplifier whereas a reference voltage is applied to its inverting input. This reference is established during a self calibration process and compensates the input offset of the differential amplifier. This mechanism has been designed and implemented within the circuit described in this paper. The circuit is designed in a 160 nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor process. A sensitivity of -30 dBm is achieved. It can operate over a wide frequency and temperature ranges, 100 MHz-3 GHz and -55 °C-125 °C respectively. It consumes only a few microwatts.