Collaboration to Develop Ultra-Low Power Short-Range Radio for Internet of Things Applications

Imec/Holst Centre and MegaChips, a fabless company focusing on the development of system LSIs and products that incorporate original algorithms and architecture, have signed a strategic partnership for joint R&D on ultra-low power (ULP) short radio technology for smart homes and buildings.

Following the growth of mobile devices the rapidly upcoming Internet-of-Things (IoT), the market for connected devices will know an impressive growth in the coming years, with small, battery-operated sensors devices integrated everywhere – from homes and automobiles to human bodies – ultimately yielding up to hundreds of sensors per person, supporting and even augmenting daily lives.

As these wireless sensors become internet-connected and operate in heterogeneous networks, they enable percipient systems that act on all available data from own sensors as well as from the cloud.

By 2020, models predict roughly 50 billion connected devices will be in use. These battery operated or energy-harvesting operated sensors will communicate with each other and with the internet via small short range radios that consume little amount of power – not only when active but also in the stand-by mode – and at affordable cost for mass production.

In applications such as smart factories, smart grid and smart buildings, ultra-low power wireless connectivity will enable maintenance-free monitoring of infrastructure and resources. Today, this critical infrastructure is, in the best case, monitored on just a few locations and for only a few parameters, with expensive, cabled setups. The availability of reliable autonomous wireless sensor nodes opens up a huge potential for cost saving by avoiding down-time of machines in factories, or shortage of energy or other resources.

Together, researchers from imec/Holst Centre and MegaChips will develop an ultra-low power multi-standard sub-GHz radio solution (compatible with ZigBee 900MHz and IEEE802.15.4g) on CMOS technology, achieving a transmit power two times lower than current state-of-the-art (60mW) and a receive power five to 10 times lower (6mW). Ultimately, energy harvested solutions will enable fully-autonomous sensors. Even within this very modest power consumption, a programmable output transmitter up to 13dBm is provided.

“We are pleased that MegaChips has joined our ULP radio R&D program to strengthen our research ecosystem,” said Harmke de Groot, program director ULP Circuits and Devices at imec/Holst Centre. “Combining our partners’ know-how with our expertise in radio design and technology enables new innovative products for IoT while significantly shortening the time-to-market for our industrial partners”.

“This ultra-low power wireless chip project will become nucleus of our IoT strategy,” said Akira Takata, president and CEO of MegaChips Corporation. “We are going to lead the IoT market by combining our development capabilities of intelligent Sensor Hub and MEMS technology with imec’s most advanced RF technology.”