A 20 μW, 50 mV, Fully-Integrated Cross-Coupled Oscillator for On-Body IoT Applications

An ultra-low-power oscillator for on-body-devices wireless transmitters is designed and implemented in 130 nm CMOS process. This paper explores the reduction of the supply voltage to reduce the power consumption of LC oscillators used in transmitters, complying with imperative requirements of low power dissipation for connected on-body and implanted medical devices. The limits of the voltage supply reduction on the performance of the LC oscillators are researched and important parameters such as phase noise, power consumption and the typical figure of merit are inspected. Measurements results show that the oscillator achieves -88 dBc/Hz of phase noise for a 50-mV supply voltage and -111 dBc/Hz for 200 mV at Df = 200 kHz, while consuming only 20 mW and 118 mW of DC power, respectively.