In order to realize an Internet-of-Things (IoT) with tiny sensors integrated in our buildings, our clothing, and the public spaces, battery lifetime and battery size remain major challenges. Power reduction in IoT sensor nodes is determined by both sleep mode as well as active mode contributions. A power state machine, at the system level, is the key to achieve ultra-low average power consumption by alternating the system between active and sleep modes efficiently. While, power consumption in the active mode remains dominant, other power contributions like for timekeeping in standby and sleep conditions are becoming important as well. For example, non-conventional critical blocks, such as crystal oscillator (XO) and resistor-capacitor oscillator (RCO) become more crucial during the design phase. Apart from power reduction, low-voltage operation will further extend the battery life. A 2.4GHz multi-standard radio is presented, as a test case, with an average power consumption in the µW range, and state-of-the-art performance across a voltage supply range from 1.2V to 0.9V.

Wide area virtualization of wireless transceivers by centrally managed software radio systems is a way to efficiently share the resources for supporting a variety of wireless protocols. In order to enable wide-area virtualization of wireless transceivers, the authors have developed a mechanism to deliver the radio space information which is quantized broadband radio wave information including the radio signals to the transceivers. Delivery mechanism consists of a distribution server which distributes radio space corresponding to the request of the client such as the center frequency and the bandwidth and a client which uses the radio space information. Accumulation of the distribution servers which deliver radio space information simultaneously to a large number of clients will contribute to build an infrastructure for any clients ubiquitously distributed over the globe. In this paper, scale-out architecture of a distribution server is proposed to deliver unlimitedly broadband radio space information to unlimited number of clients. Experimental implementation indicates the architecture to be a scale-out solution, while the number of clients is restricted by the computer resources of the distribution server. The band pass filter processing for individual client in the distribution server consumes the dominant part of the processing power, and the number of CPU cores is the upper limit of clients supportable for the distribution server in the current operating system implementation. The logical increase of the number of CPU cores by hardware multithreading does not contribute to relax this limit. We also discuss the guidance architecture or building server derived from these conclusions.

A 2.4 GHz 0.13 µm CMOS transceiver LSI, supporting Bluetooth V2.1+enhanced data rate (EDR) standard, has achieved a high reception sensitivity and high-quality transmission signals between -40 and +90. A low-IF receiver and direct-conversion transmitter architecture are employed. A temperature compensated receiver chain including a low-noise amplifier accomplishes a sensitivity of -90 dBm at frequency shift keying modulation even in the worst environmental condition. Design optimization of phase noise in a local oscillator and linearity of a power amplifier improves transmission signals and enables them to meet Bluetooth radio specifications. Fabrication in scaled 0.13 µm CMOS and operation at a low supply voltage of 1.5 V result in small area and low power consumption.

An on-package dual-mode square-loop band pass filter is studied by applying a non-uniform finite difference time domain (NU-FDTD) method. The filter is integrated on a package containing a transceiver, and it is designed to operate in dual-modes, i.e., and , to ensure a good electric performance around the center frequency at 5.25 GHz, which is commonly allocated in wireless local area network (WLAN). This filter is also referred as a dual-mode integrated-circuit package filter (DM-ICPF) based on its operational mode and integration onto an IC-package. The frequency characteristics in terms of the scattering parameters are studied, and the results are validated against the computed results using commercial software, the high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). Results show an excellent agreement between the numerical data, and the proposed DM-ICPF structure can be applied in the area of the highly integrated wireless transceivers.

All-CMOS radio transceivers and systems-on-a-chip are rapidly making inroads on a wireless market that for years was dominated by bipolar and BiCMOS solutions. It is not a matter of replacing bipolar transistors in known circuit topologies with FETs; the wave of RF-CMOS brings with it new architectures and unprecedented levels of integration. What are its origins? What is the commercial impact? How will RF-CMOS evolve in the future? This paper offers a retrospective and a perspective.