A GaN-Based Wireless Monitoring System for High-Temperature Applications

A fully-integrated data transmission system based on gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) devices is proposed. This system targets high-temperature (HT) applications, especially those involving pressure and temperature sensors for aerospace in which the environmental temperature exceeds 350 °C. The presented system includes a front-end amplifying the sensed signal (gain of 50 V/V), followed by a novel analog-to-digital converter driving a modulator exploiting the load-shift keying technique. An oscillation frequency of 1.5 MHz is used to ensure a robust wireless transmission through metallic-based barriers. To retrieve the data, a new demodulator architecture based on digital circuits is proposed. A 1 V amplitude difference can be detected between a high-amplitude (data-on) and a low-amplitude (data-off) of the received modulated signal. Two high-voltage supply levels (+14 V and -14 V) are required to operate the circuits. The layout of the proposed system was completed in a chip occupying 10.8 mm². The HT characterization and modeling of integrated GaN devices and passive components are performed to ensure the reliability of simulation results. The performance of the various proposed building blocks, as well as the whole system, have been validated by simulation over the projected wide operating temperature range (25-350 °C).