Ultra-low power receivers for wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor network applications, low-power operation of the wireless receiver is critical. To address this need an ultra-low power Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK) receiver using the super-regenerative architecture is developed.;A prototype receiver is built and tested for operation in the 900 MHz ISM band. Lab measurements show power consumption as low as 244 mu W with a sensitivity of -84 dBm while operating at 250 kbps. A second test chip designed to operate at 2.4 GHz improves on the previous design by adding full digital control and calibration. The 2.4 GHz receiver consumes 215 muW while operating at 250 kbps and shows a 12 dB improvement in sensitivity over the original design. The entire receiver has an energy consumption of only 0.175 nJ/b while operating at 2 Mbps.