An 0.877-μW Ultra-Low-Power Impulse-Radio Ultra-Wide-Band Transmitter for Biomedical Applications

In this paper, an ultra-low-power impulse-radio ultra-wide-band transmitter (IR-UWB) is presented, enabling various wireless bio-sensor applications. To design and implement this circuit, open-source IC design tools were utilized, which, lacked a module for inductor generation. Firstly, a flow for inductor generation was developed and then evaluated. Secondly, an inductor and balun were created with the flow and then used in the circuit implementation. The presented circuit includes an integrated oscillator, power amplifier, matching network, and delay stage. The layout area occupies 0.214mm2 in opensource SKY130 technology. The total power consumption and energy-per-bit of the presented transmitter were calculated for 5.12 kbps with a simple 2-pulse-per-bit modulation scheme and are 0.877μW and 171.28 pJ, respectively. The power spectrum density of the output is in compliance with the IEEE 802.15.41- LRP-UWB-PHY standard, US FCC, and European ETSI limits, enabling a wide usability of the circuit.