Narrowband Localization Circuits and Systems

The demand for miniaturized devices with low power consumption and advanced features has increased, enablingdifferent opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Several challenges need to be addressed. First, the increasing number of devices operating in the limited radio spectrum resources drives the need to improve out-of-band interference filtering. Second, the limited battery capacity and driving power restrict IoT devices’ functionality, necessitating new circuits and systems co-design to enhance performance. Third, the power-hungry and bulky off-chip components challenge the system’s power and form-factor constraints.

This dissertation proposes three works in circuits and systems to address those issues. The first work introduces a highly reconfigurable analog-FIR filter with a sharp transition and high rejection to address the IoT device spectrum congestion issue. The second work introduces a long-range narrowband RF localization system featuring a PLL-less frequency hopping receiver front-end with a novel signal processing technique, enabling a long-range localization service with a small form factor of the tag device. Lastly, a more comprehensive version of a PLL-less and crystal-less frequency hopping receiver is proposed. We introduce a novel signal processing technique to resolve the unstable sampling clock issue, enabling a compact and fully integrated receiver.

CHAIR: Professor David Blaauw