A new transmitter architecture was proposed to solve the high power consumption and low efficiency problems of the traditional transmitter in order to overcome the limitation of battery capacity and prolong the standby time of the chip. A two-stage ring oscillator based on injection locking technique was used to provide multiphase signal. The self-boosted charge pump circuit boosts the voltage of the multi-phase signal in order to achieve a low-voltage and low-power design. The edge combiner was used to multiply the frequency of the multiphase signal, which ensured that the pre-stage circuit can work at low frequency with low power consumption. The 433 MHz ISM transmitter was designed in a 55 nm CMOS technique for verification. The simulation results show that the output power is −9.7 dBm. The ring oscillator and charge pump can work at a 0.6 V supply, and the edge combiner works under 1.2 V supply. The whole transmitter consumes 357.04 µW, the efficiency is 29.83%, and the layout occupies an area of 70 µm×100 µm. The simulation results show that the proposed structure has the advantages of low power consumption, high efficiency, small area and low complexity.
Keywords:transmitter
;
low power consumption
;
low voltage
;
self-boosted voltage
;
edge combining
;
injection-locking
CUI Meng-qian, ZONG Pei-sheng, WEI Guo, WANG Ke-ping. Low-power and high-efficiency transmitter based on dual-supply voltage and frequency multiplication technique. Journal of Zhejiang University(Engineering Science)[J], 2022, 56(7): 1294-1301 doi:10.3785/j.issn.1008-973X.2022.07.004
随着无线体域网(wireless body area network,WBAN)技术的发展,市场对低功耗高性能无线通讯系统的需求与日俱增[1]. 尤其是辅助医疗领域,越来越多的可穿戴和可植入式医疗通信设备被用于感知心率、脑信号和血压等重要的人体参数[2-4]. 发射机芯片作为通信领域不可缺少的一部分,直接影响通信系统的整体功耗. 为了延长无线设备的待机时间,克服电池容量的限制,提高电池的使用寿命,低功耗发射机设计成为国内外的研究热点[5-8].
输入方波VIN和输出方波VOUT为所需的时钟脉冲,其中VIN为电压摆幅为低电压(0.6 V)的方波信号. 当VIN为高电平时,晶体管MN1和MN2导通,MP1和MP2截止,此时VOUT为低电平,使晶体管MP3导通,电容C的左侧为低电平,右侧为高电平,因此电容C两端电压近似等于VDD. 当VIN变为低电平时,MP1和MP2导通,MN1和MN2截止,此时VOUT为高电平,使MP3处于截止状态,处于导通状态的晶体管MP1使得电容左侧的电压为VDD,即0.6 V. 由于电容两端本身有0.6 V的压差,电容右端的电压VCP变为1.2 V. 由于MP2的导通作用,VOUT的电压为1.2 V.
Fig.8
Waveform of self-boosted voltage charge pump
由于电容的损耗及反相器的延迟导致输入输出时钟不完全重叠而造成的电荷泄露[20]等,使得实际升压后的电平稍低于1.2 V. 晶体管MP3在开关切换时的状态如图9(a)所示,当VIN由高电平变为低电平时,MP3未立刻关断, MP3的源极电压VS(即VCP)由0.6 V逐渐上升到1.2 V,MP3的栅极电压VG(即输出电压VOUT)由0 V逐渐上升到1.2 V,MP3的漏极连到了VDD,所以MP3的漏极电压一直为0.6 V.
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