PicoRadios for Wireless Sensor Networks: The Next Challenge in Ultra-Low-Power Design

J. Rabaey, J. Ammer, T. Karalar, S. Li, B. Otis, M. Sheets, T. Tuan

Proceedings of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, San Francisco, CA, February 3-7, 2002.

An untapped opportunity in the realm of wireless data lies in low data-rate (< 10 Kbit/sec) low-cost wireless transceivers, assembled into distributed networks of sensor and actuator nodes. This enables applications such as smart buildings and highways, environment monitoring, user interfaces, entertainment, factory automation, and robotics [1]. While the aggregate system processes large amounts of data, individual nodes participate in a small fraction only (typical data rates <1 Kbit/sec). These ubiquitous networks require that the individual nodes are tiny, easily integrable into the environment, and have negligible cost.