NB-IoT and GNSS All-In-One System-On-Chip Integrating RF Transceiver, 23-dBm CMOS Power Amplifier, Power Management Unit, and Clock Management System for Low Cost Solution

This article presents a fully integrated stand-alone narrowband Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) system-on-chip (SoC). It aims for an all-in-one system to integrate all necessary blocks such as an RF transceiver, a power management system (PMIP), and a clock management system and to save a bills-of-material (BOM) cost. An RF transceiver is integrated to support multi-band cellular IoT and GNSS with a CMOS RF power amplifier transmitting 23-dBm output power. A PMIP, including bucks, a boost, and low-dropout regulators (LDOs), is integrated to support coin cell or AAA battery and to support a wide input supply voltage range from 2.5 to 5 V. In addition, clock management system is embedded with a digitally controlled crystal oscillator (DCXO), a relaxation oscillator (RCO), and temperature sensor units (TSUs). It is fabricated in a standard 28-nm CMOS process and its size is 24.6 mm2. The power consumption of always-on-block is 15 μW, and the sleep current consumption is less than 10 μA at 3.8 V.