A ±0.5 dB, 6 nW RSSI Circuit With RF Power-to-Digital Conversion Technique for Ultra-Low Power IoT Radio Applications

This paper presents a new technique of radio frequency (RF) signal strength detection with a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) circuit which can be deployed in an internet-of-things (IoT) network. The proposed RSSI circuit is based on a direct conversion of RF to digital code indicating the signal strength. The direct conversion is achieved by the repeated switching of a rectifier's output voltage using an ultra-low power comparator. A 5-bit programmable feedback circuit is used to correct detection inaccuracies. The RSSI circuit is implemented in a CMOS process and consumes power. It has a linear dynamic range of and exhibits an error of with a wide bandwidth of . A detailed analysis of the RSSI circuit is presented and verified with simulation and measurement results. The high detection accuracy with ultra-low power consumption of our RSSI circuit is favourable for IoT applications including localization, beamforming, hardware security and other low-power applications.

Automated summary

This paper presents a new technique of RF signal strength detection in an IoT network using a RSSI circuit. The circuit achieves direct conversion of RF to digital code indicating the signal strength and incorporates a feedback circuit to correct detection inaccuracies. The circuit offers high detection accuracy with ultra-low power consumption, making it suitable for IoT applications.