A 0.13pJ/bit, referenceless transceiver with clock edge modulation for a wired intra-BAN communication

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a low power transceiver (TRx) suitable for a wired intra-body area network (BAN) communication. The proposed transceiver is designed with relaxation oscillator which is appropriate for this low frequency (< 50MHz) application. To lessen the complexity of building this BAN system, we use clock edge modulation (CEM) data as sending or receiving data, and this allows the transceiver to operate without reference clock. The relaxation oscillator in this transceiver is designed to be able to generate CEM data pattern as well as a clock, so this can minimize power consumption in designing additional block related to transmission. Proposed circuit operates up to 36MHz with 1.0V supply voltage. It consumes 1.26uW at an input data rate of 10Mbps and achieves 0.13pJ/bit of energy per bit even though the circuit is implemented in a 0.18µm CMOS technology.