A new CMOS radio for low power RFID applications

A novel radio receiver circuit, functioning as a tuned active, detecting antenna, is described. The receiver is suggested to be part of a new radio system with the potential of competing with the range capability of active RFID-tags and, through its low power and long lifetime, with passive RFID-tags. The circuit is outlined and the functionality is verified by simulations and measurements. A 24 MHz discrete prototype showed better than -70 dBm sensitivity and 5 kHz bandwidth, with a power consumption of 102 μW. Simulations of a monolithic implementation were performed at 2.5 GHz. The detector is modeled by using 180 nm CMOS transistors. In simulations the power consumption for the detector is below 125 μW at a sensitivity of -83 dBm and a bandwidth of 9 MHz. Our conclusion is that this novel simple circuit architecture is well suited for monolithic implementation of a low power transceiver.©2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.