A CMOS Low-power Temperature-robust RSSI using Weak-inversion Limiting Amplifiers

• Main Authors: Wang, Keping, Lei, Xuemei, Ma, Kaixue, Yeo, Kiat Seng, Cao, Xiang, Wang, Zhigong
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Low-power; CMOS
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82166; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41138
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper presents a low-power CMOS receiving signal strength indicator (RSSI). The main architecture of the circuit adopts a six-stage limiting amplifier (LA) in a logarithmic-linear form, which shows a good performance in weak signal detection. The RSSI achieves high tolerance to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations by utilizing the unique nature of branch currents in a transconductance amplifier. The power consumption is decreased by using the weak-inversion LAs. Full-waveform current rectification and summation are employed in the RSSI circuit to achieve high precision while maintaining low power consumption. Measured results show that in the 1 kHz–50 MHz frequency range, the input dynamic range is wider than 70 dB within ±2 dB linearity error. The chip occupies an area of 0.7 mm2 × 0.3 mm2 using a 0.18-μm CMOS. It draws 1.3 mA from a 1.8 V supply.