24.4 A 0.18V 382µW bluetooth low-energy (BLE) receiver with 1.33nW sleep power for energy-harvesting applications in 28nm CMOS

Abstract

For true mobility, wearable electronics should be self-powered by the environment. On-body thermoelectric (∼50µW/cm2) is a maturing energy source but delivers a deeply low and inconstant output voltage (0.05 to 0.3V) hindering its utility. With the limited power efficiency of ultra-low-voltage (ULV) boost converters (64% in [1]), there is a rising interest in developing ULV radios that can operate directly at the energy-harvester output, reducing the waste of energy and active-sleep latency. The 2.4GHz receiver in [2] validates 0.3V operation, but is a non-standard design without I/Q demodulation. Also, its focus is on the active power (1.6mW) assuming its 0.3V supply is constant.