Ultra low power detection circuits in 130nm CMOS for a wireless UWB localization system

This paper presents two detection circuits with an ultra low power consumption in the nW-range. A voltage detection circuit is designed and measured of which the output switches if the supply voltage reaches 1V. It consumes an average current of merely 3nA. Also a power dip detection circuit is designed and measured which detects if an RF-signal is present at the input. The minimal needed input power is −24.5dBm, and it operates from a supply voltage of 0.5V up to 1V and consumes only 5nW to 65nW respectively when active. It operates with a carrier frequency from 40MHz up to 900MHz. It can serve as an OOK-demodulator for bitrates up to 6.67kbps. The die area of both circuits combined, excluding buffers and including decoupling capacitors, is 310µm×550µm.