Micro-watt building blocks for biomedical RF tranceivers

The development of Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a key point enabling the mobility health. Among the most critical constrains in WBAN implementation is the power consumption of wireless featuring nodes. This work focuses on the development of ultra low power radio building blocks dedicated to 2.4 GHz ISM band. A novel design approach based on device optimization is first presented. It is then applied to the implementation of a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) and a mixer in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. The LNA provides a 13.1 dB gain and a 5.3 dB NF for a 60 μW/0.4 V power consumption. The mixer achieves a conversion gain of 17.5 dB and a NF of 12 dB at 0 dBm LO power. It consumes 350 μW for a 0.8 V supply.