Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
A Micro-Watt Spectrum-Aware 24 GHz Wake-Up Transceiver and Calibration-Free Thermal-Diffusion Temperature Sensing for IoT Systems5 views
Author
Zhang, Yaobin, Electrical Engineering - School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia
Advisors
Bowers, Steven, EN-Elec & Comp Engr Dept, University of Virginia
Abstract
The growing demand for long-lifetime Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) systems calls for sensing and communication architectures that operate under strict energy constraints with minimal maintenance. In many event-driven applications, sensor nodes remain in low-power standby and activate only upon meaningful stimuli.
This dissertation presents two key building blocks for such systems: a calibration-free thermal-diffusion-based temperature sensor and a low-power 24 GHz wake-up transceiver (WuTRx). First, a CMOS electrothermal filter (ETF) temperature sensor is designed and experimentally validated. It achieves calibration-free operation without trimming, with sub-0.01 °C resolution and ±0.8 °C accuracy above 0 °C at 3.5 mW power consumption (1.2 V supply). Practical trade-offs among averaging, latency, and low-temperature performance are also characterized.
Second, a 24 GHz wake-up receiver (WuRx) using a channel-embedded OOK (CE-OOK) scheme is proposed for energy-efficient wireless activation. The design achieves 15.7 μW average power consumption, with a tunable latency–power trade-off (14.6 μA at 14 s to 128.5 μA at 1 s). It demonstrates −69.5 dBm sensitivity with <0.1% miss detection under controlled false positive rates. This work represents the first environmentally-aware, multichannel wake-up receiver architecture for AIoT applications, with measured trade-offs among gain, noise figure, sensitivity, and power.
Together, these results demonstrate that calibration-free sensing and millimeter-wave wake-up communication are viable approaches for low-maintenance, long-lifetime IoT systems, providing practical design insights for future energy-constrained platforms.
Degree
PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Keywords
Wake-Up Receiver (WuRx), 24 GHz Transceiver, Ultra-Low Power, Thermal Diffusivity, Calibration-Free Temperature Sensor, Channel-Embedded OOK (CE-OOK), Spectrum-Aware Communication, AIoT
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)
Zhang, Yaobin. A Micro-Watt Spectrum-Aware 24 GHz Wake-Up Transceiver and Calibration-Free Thermal-Diffusion Temperature Sensing for IoT Systems. University of Virginia, Electrical Engineering - School of Engineering and Applied Science, PHD (Doctor of Philosophy), 2026-04-13, https://doi.org/10.18130/5qbb-fr21.
Files
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