Inductively coupled super-regeneration amplifier based on integrated transmission line for transcutaneous data transfer

An inductively coupled super-regeneration amplifier (SRA) is presented for near field transcutaneous data transfer. Capacitively-loaded integrated transmission line based resonators are used to build inductively coupled telemetry link. In transmitting mode, the SRA generates digitally controlled on-off keying (OOK) modulated pulsed-sinusoids tuned at 2.4GHz. In receiving mode, the SRA switches in between filtering and oscillation modes in order to detect the inductively coupled data pattern. The degenerative quenching technique is employed in the SRA to improve the linearity, and to reduce the sensitivity of the negative transconductance (GM) over a wide range of bias current. The SRA consumes 1mA from 2.5V supply in a 250nm BiCMOS technology and achieved a data rate of 100Mb/s in transmit mode. In receiving mode, the SRA consumes 1.2mA from 2.5V supply to detect −75dBm signals at data rate of 10Mb/s.