Ultra-low-energy transmitters for battery-free wireless sensor networks

Graduation date: 2012As the number of autonomous data collection applications keep increasing, the demand for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has seen explosive growth. In this dissertation, an ultra-low-energy WSN transmitter is developed to reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes in WSNs. With an ultra-low-energy transceiver, it is possible to eliminate the battery in the sensor node and power itself with an energy harvester, thus creating a battery-free sensor node. A variety of applications can be accommodated with the battery-free sensor node as it has small size, light weight, and endless lifetime.\ud Two prototype WSN transmitters are implemented to demonstrate the transmitter energy minimization. The first transmitter incorporates a fast frequency calibration to shorten the oscillation frequency tuning time. This minimizes energy wasted during the transmitter start-up period. The energy consumption of the second transmitter that employs a power oscillator architecture is minimized by maximizing the transmitter efficiency. The efficiency of the power oscillator circuit is analyzed and the design procedure for maximum efficiency is then developed.\ud Prototype WSN transmitters were fabricated in 0.18-um CMOS technology. The first transmitter operates in the 915-MHz ISM band. With 0.5-MHz reference frequency, the transmitter takes only 72 us for the BFSK frequency calibration. It dissipates a power of 1.91 mW while radiating a power of -2.9 dBm. The second transmitter operates in the 2.45-GHz ISM band on a single supply of 0.65 V. The transmitter has efficiency as high as 23 % at -5.2 dBm radiated power. This corresponds to a low power consumption of 1.34 mW