19 research outputs found

    Energy-Efficient Wireless Circuits and Systems for Internet of Things

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    As the demand of ultra-low power (ULP) systems for internet of thing (IoT) applications has been increasing, large efforts on evolving a new computing class is actively ongoing. The evolution of the new computing class, however, faced challenges due to hard constraints on the RF systems. Significant efforts on reducing power of power-hungry wireless radios have been done. The ULP radios, however, are mostly not standard compliant which poses a challenge to wide spread adoption. Being compliant with the WiFi network protocol can maximize an ULP radio’s potential of utilization, however, this standard demands excessive power consumption of over 10mW, that is hardly compatible with in ULP systems even with heavy duty-cycling. Also, lots of efforts to minimize off-chip components in ULP IoT device have been done, however, still not enough for practical usage without a clean external reference, therefore, this limits scaling on cost and form-factor of the new computer class of IoT applications. This research is motivated by those challenges on the RF systems, and each work focuses on radio designs for IoT applications in various aspects. First, the research covers several endeavors for relieving energy constraints on RF systems by utilizing existing network protocols that eventually meets both low-active power, and widespread adoption. This includes novel approaches on 802.11 communication with articulate iterations on low-power RF systems. The research presents three prototypes as power-efficient WiFi wake-up receivers, which bridges the gap between industry standard radios and ULP IoT radios. The proposed WiFi wake-up receivers operate with low power consumption and remain compatible with the WiFi protocol by using back-channel communication. Back-channel communication embeds a signal into a WiFi compliant transmission changing the firmware in the access point, or more specifically just the data in the payload of the WiFi packet. With a specific sequence of data in the packet, the transmitter can output a signal that mimics a modulation that is more conducive for ULP receivers, such as OOK and FSK. In this work, low power mixer-first receivers, and the first fully integrated ultra-low voltage receiver are presented, that are compatible with WiFi through back-channel communication. Another main contribution of this work is in relieving the integration challenge of IoT devices by removing the need for external, or off-chip crystals and antennas. This enables a small form-factor on the order of mm3-scale, useful for medical research and ubiquitous sensing applications. A crystal-less small form factor fully integrated 60GHz transceiver with on-chip 12-channel frequency reference, and good peak gain dual-mode on-chip antenna is presented.PHDElectrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162975/1/jaeim_1.pd

    Ultra Low-Power Frequency Synthesizers for Duty Cycled IoT radios

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    Internet of Things (IoT), which is one of the main talking points in the electronics industry today, consists of a number of highly miniaturized sensors and actuators which sense the physical environment around us and communicate that information to a central information hub for further processing. This agglomeration of miniaturized sensors helps the system to be deployed in previously impossible arenas such as healthcare (Body Area Networks - BAN), industrial automation, real-time monitoring environmental parameters and so on; thereby greatly improving the quality of life. Since the IoT devices are usually untethered, their energy sources are limited (typically battery powered or energy scavenging) and hence have to consume very low power. Today's IoT systems employ radios that use communication protocols like Bluetooth Smart; which means that they communicate at data rates of a few hundred kb/s to a few Mb/s while consuming around a few mW of power. Even though the power dissipation of these radios have been decreasing steadily over the years, they seem to have reached a lower limit in the recent times. Hence, there is a need to explore other avenues to further reduce this dissipation so as to further improve the energy autonomy of the IoT node. Duty cycling has emerged as a promising alternative in this sense since it involves radios transmitting very short bursts of data at high rates and being asleep the rest of the time. In addition, high data rates proffer the added advantage of reducing network congestion which has become a major problem in IoT owing to the increase in the number of sensor nodes as well as the volume of data they send. But, as the average power (energy) dissipated decreases due to duty cycling, the energy overhead associated with the start-up phase of the radio becomes comparable with the former. Therefore, in order to take full advantage of duty cycling, the radio should be capable of being turned ON/OFF almost instantaneously. Furthermore, the radio of the future should also be able to support easy frequency hopping to improve the system efficiency from an interference point of view. In other words, in addition to high data rate capability, the next generation radios must also be highly agile and have a low energy overhead. All these factors viz. data rate, agility and overhead are mainly dependent on the radio's frequency synthesizer and therefore emphasis needs to be laid on developing new synthesizer architectures which are also amenable to technology scaling. This thesis deals with the evolution of one such all-digital frequency synthesizer; with each step dealing with one of the aforementioned issues. In order to reduce the energy overhead of the synthesizer, FBAR resonators (which are a class of MEMS resonators) are used as the frequency reference instead of a traditional quartz crystal. The FBAR resonators aid the design of fast-startup oscillators as opposed to the long latency associated with the start-up of the crystal oscillator. In addition, the frequency stability of the FBAR lends itself to open-loop architecture which can support very high data rates. Another advantage of the open-loop architecture is the frequency agility which aids easy channel switching for multi-hop architectures, as demonstrated in this thesis

    45-nm SOI CMOS Bluetooth Electrochemical Sensor for Continuous Glucose Monitoring

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    Due to increasing rates of diabetes, non-invasive glucose monitoring systems will become critical to improving health outcomes for an increasing patient population. Bluetooth integration for such a system has been previously unattainable due to the prohibitive energy consumption. However, enabling Bluetooth allows for widespread adoption due to the ubiquity of Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate the feasibility of a Bluetooth-based energy-harvesting glucose sensor for contact-lens integration using 45~nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The proposed glucose monitoring system includes a Bluetooth transmitter implemented as a two-point closed loop PLL modulator, a sensor potentiostat, and a 1st-order incremental delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (IADC). This work details the complete system design including derivation of top-level specifications such as glucose sensing range, Bluetooth protocol timing, energy consumption, and circuit specifications such as carrier frequency range, output power, phase-noise performance, stability, resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and power consumption. Three test chips were designed to prototype the system, and two of these were experimentally verified. Chip 1 includes a partial implementation of a phase-locked-loop (PLL) which includes a voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO), frequency divider, and phase-frequency detector (PFD). Chip 2 includes the design of the sensor potentiostat and IADC. Finally, Chip 3 combines the circuitry of Chip 1 and Chip 2, along with a charge-pump, loop-filter and power amplifier to complete the system. Chip 1 DC power consumption was measured to be 204.8~μ\muW, while oscillating at 2.441 GHz with an output power PoutP_{out} of -35.8 dBm, phase noise at 1 MHz offset L(1 MHz)L(1\text{ MHz}) of -108.5 dBc/Hz, and an oscillator figure of merit (FOM) of 183.44dB. Chip 2 achieves a total DC power consumption of 5.75~μ\muW. The system has a dynamic range of 0.15~nA -- 100~nA at 10-bit resolution. The integral non-linearity (INL) and differential non-linearity (DNL) of the IADC were measured to be -6~LSB/±\pm0.3~LSB respectively with a conversion time of 65.56~ms. This work achieves the best duty-cycled DC power consumption compared to similar glucose monitoring systems, while providing sufficient performance and range using Bluetooth

    Conception et réalisation de circuits de génération de fréquence en technologie FDSOI 28nm

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    The large-scale deployment of IoT requires the development of more efficient energy radio systems, within which the frequency generation circuit is known to be particularly energy-consuming. The objective of this thesis is firstly to develop a very low consumption frequency synthesis and secondly to demonstrate the performance of the FDSOI technology for analog and RF applications.In the first chapter are the specifications of the chosen standard -the BLE-, the specifications of the FDSOI technology and state of the art of low power radio frequency synthesizers architecture. We have chosen from this comparison the Fractional Phase Divider architecture. The second chapter presents the results of three types of system simulations of the PLL; 1 - the operation of its components and the key points to be respected for its implementation, 2 - the phase noise behavior for the definition of specifications, and 3 - the impact of architecture on the generation of spurious. This study allowed us to set the specifications of VCROs developed in the next chapter. The third chapter is dedicated to the design, implementation and testing of four topologies of VCROs and a test circuit in FDSOI 28nm technology. The first measurement results are encouraging but they need to be complemented by an integrated fractional PLL measurement. Indeed, the sensitivity of the circuits to the supply voltage (pushing of about 5 GHz/V) made measurements of phase noise very delicate. The measured consumption is less than 0.8 mA and the surface of the circuits is of the order of 600 µm².In the fourth and final chapter we present the implementation at circuit-level of a phase synchronization PLL.Le déploiement à grande échelle de l’internet des objets nécessite le développement de systèmes de radiocommunication plus économes en énergie, dont le circuit de génération de fréquences est connu pour être particulièrement énergivore. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est donc d’une part de développer une synthèse de fréquences très faible consommation et d’autre part de démontrer les performances de la technologie FDSOI pour des applications analogiques et radiofréquences. Dans le premier chapitre sont présentées les spécifications du standard choisi -le BLE-, les spécificités de la technologie FDSOI et l'état de l’art des architectures de transmetteurs radiofréquences à faible consommation. Nous avons retenue de cette comparaison l'architecture à division par phases. Le deuxième chapitre présente les résultats de trois types de modélisation système de l’architecture ; 1 - le fonctionnement de ses composants et les points clés à respecter pour son implémentation, 2 - le comportement en bruit de phase pour la définition des spécifications, et 3 - l’impact de l’architecture sur la génération de raies spectrales parasites. Cette étude nous a permis de fixer le cahier des charges du VCRO développé au chapitre suivant. Le troisième chapitre est consacré à la conception, la réalisation et le test de 4 topologies de VCROs en technologie FDSOI 28nm et d'un circuit de test. Les premiers résultats de mesure sont encourageants mais nécessitent d’être complétés par des mesures avec PLL fractionnaire intégrée. En effet, la sensibilité des circuits à la tension d’alimentation (pushing de l’ordre de 5 GHz/V) a rendu les mesures du bruit de phase très délicates

    The Seventeenth Space Simulation Conference. Terrestrial Test for Space Success

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    The Institute of Environmental Sciences' Seventeenth Space Simulation Conference, 'Terrestrial Test for Space Success' provided participants with a forum to acquire and exchange information on the state of the art in space simulation, test technology, atomic oxygen, dynamics testing, contamination, and materials. The papers presented at this conference and the resulting discussions carried out the conference theme of 'terrestrial test for space success.

    A selective list of acronyms and abbreviations

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    A glossary of acronyms, abbreviations, initials, code words, and phrases used at the John F. Kennedy Space Center is presented. The revision contains more than 12,100 entries

    Bibliography of Lewis Research Center technical publications announced in 1977

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    This compilation of abstracts describes and indexes over 780 technical reports resulting from the scientific and engineering work performed and managed by the Lewis Research Center in 1977. All the publications were announced in the 1977 issues of STAR (Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports) and/or IAA (International Aerospace Abstracts). Documents cited include research reports, journal articles, conference presentations, patents and patent applications, and theses

    Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

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    Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications

    Recent Development of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

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    Abstract: The use of renewable energies continues to increase. However, the energy obtained from renewable resources is variable over time. The amount of energy produced from the renewable energy sources (RES) over time depends on the meteorological conditions of the region chosen, the season, the relief, etc. So, variable power and nonguaranteed energy produced by renewable sources implies intermittence of the grid. The key lies in supply sources integrated to a hybrid system (HS)
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