This paper presents a digitally controlled frequency generator for dual frequency-band radar system that is optimized for 16 nm FinFET CMOS. It is based on a 21% wide tuning range,fine-resolution DCO with only switchable metal capacitors. A third-harmonic boosting DCO simultaneously generates 22.5-28 GHz and sufficiently strong 68-84 GHz signals to satisfy short-range radar (SRR) and medium/long range radar (M/LRR) requirements. The 20.2 mW DCO emits -97 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 77 GHz,while fully satisfying metal density rules. It occupies 0.07 mm²,thus demonstrating both 43% power and 47% area reductions. The phase noise and FoM_T (figure-of-merit with tuning range) are improved by 1.8 dB and 0.2 dB,respectively,compared to state-of-the-art.

In this paper, we investigate an impact of voltage supply scaling on power consumption and performance of a new class of wireless receivers (RX) for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications: a discrete-time (DT) superheterodyne architecture realized in nanoscale CMOS using inverter-based gm and switched capacitors. The power supply is partitioned into three separate domains: RF, intermediate frequency (IF) processing, and clocking, which allows them to be independently regulated to assess their respective impact. The DT-RX maintains its functionality, albeit with some acceptable loss of performance, when the core supplies are varied by as much as an octave, i.e., from the nominal 1.1 V down to 0.55V. The DT-RX IC is then connected to a switched-capacitor based voltage doubler array on a companion IC die such that the DT-RX can be powered at the octave range of 0.275-0.55 V from an energy harvester. The sensitivity at the doubler's 0.275/0.55 V input is -85/-95 dBm while consuming 1.0/2.4mW. Both ICs are implemented in TSMC 28-nm LP CMOS.

We present an ultra-low-power Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) transceiver (TRX) for the Internet of Things (IoT) optimized for digital 28-nm CMOS. A transmitter (TX) employs an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) with a switched current-source digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) featuring low frequency pushing, and class-E/F₂ digital power amplifier (PA), featuring high efficiency. Low 1/ f DCO noise allows the ADPLL to shut down after acquiring lock. The receiver operates in discrete time at high sampling rate (10 Gsamples/s) with intermediate frequency placed beyond 1/ f noise corner of MOS devices. New multistage multirate charge-sharing bandpass filters are adapted to achieve high out-of-band linearity, low noise, and low power consumption. An integrated on-chip matching network serves to both PA and low-noise transconductance amplifier, thus allowing a 1-pin direct antenna connection with no external band-selection filters. The TRX consumes 2.75 mW on the RX side and 3.7 mW on the TX side when delivering 0 dBm in BLE.