10.6 A 0.74V 200μW multi-standard transceiver digital baseband in 40nm LP-CMOS for 2.4GHz Bluetooth Smart / ZigBee / IEEE 802.15.6 personal area networks

Ultra-low-power (ULP), short-range wireless connectivity is becoming increasingly relevant to a wide range of sensor and actuator node applications, ranging from consumer lifestyle to medical applications. In recent years, a multitude of wireless standards has been proposed to meet differing requirements of individual application domains such as data rates, range, QoS, peak and average power consumption. From a commercial perspective, a single radio component that is capable of supporting multiple wireless standards — targeting multiple application domains/markets — while reducing integration costs is highly preferable. At the same time, the multi-standard support may not compromise low-power operation or silicon area.

In this paper, we present a multi-standard digital baseband (DBB) ASIC for a 2.3/2.4GHz radio RF front-end (RFFE) transceiver [1], supporting the Bluetooth Smart (low energy, BTLE), IEEE 802.15.4 (Zig Bee) and IEEE 802.15.6 standards. Ultra-low power consumption and low silicon area (0.2mm2) are achieved by optimization of baseband algorithmic complexity, such as correlation-free symbol timing synchronization, and consequent resource sharing across standards (-85% of total area). Power dissipation is further decreased by utilizing data-rate-dependent clock scaling and fine-grained power mode control of sub-modules, based on the radio's operating state. An all-digital on-chip DC-DC converter [2] allows the DBB to operate at minimum supply voltage, independent of the rest of the radio system, to meet its target mode-dependent performance at reduced energy.