A 34 μW and 3.4 pJ/b IR-UWB Transmitter Featuring Spectrum Tunability for Brain-Machine Interfaces

Wenjun Zou, Razieh Eskandari, Xing Liu, Jinbo Chen, Yijun Ye, Hui Wu, Jie Yang, Mohamad Sawan

Abstract: We present in this paper an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transmitter intended for ultra-low-power, compact, short-range, and energy-efficient applications, such as brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). The proposed transmitter achieves effective spectrum tunability, including adjustments to center frequency and -10 dB bandwidth. Implemented in TSMC 40 nm CMOS process technology, the chip area is $0.185 \mathrm{~mm}^{2}$, and the post-layout simulation reveals an average power consumption of merely $34 \mu \mathrm{~W}$, providing an energy efficiency of $3.4 \mathrm{pJ} / \mathrm{b}$ for a 10 Mbps data transmission stream. Additionally, the peak-topeak voltage amplitude of the UWB RF signal on a $50 \Omega$ output load is $\mathbf{4 5 0 ~ m V}$.