A 2m-Range 711μW Body Channel Communication Transceiver Featuring Dynamically-Sampling Bias-Free Interface Front End

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology

Background:

• Body Channel Communication (BCC) offers low-power wireless transmission for wearables.
• Current BCC systems face limited communication range due to signal loss, particularly at the receiver interface.
• DC-biasing circuits in receivers reduce essential high input impedance, hindering performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To overcome the range limitations in Body Channel Communication (BCC) systems.
• To reduce signal loss at the interface between the body surface and the BCC receiver.
• To enhance the input impedance of BCC receivers for improved signal reception.

Main Methods:

• Proposed a dynamically-sampling Input Filtering Electronics (IFE) to eliminate DC voltage bias.
• Achieved a high input impedance of 90kΩ and a 94dB RF-to-IF conversion gain.
• Fabricated the BCC transceiver chip using a 55nm CMOS process.

Main Results:

• Extended the BCC communication range to 2 meters for both forward and backward transmission paths.
• Demonstrated a total power consumption of only 711W for the transmitter and receiver.
• Significantly reduced interface loss in long-range BCC applications.

Conclusions:

• The proposed dynamically-sampling IFE effectively enhances BCC performance by increasing input impedance and conversion gain.
• The developed BCC transceiver chip enables long-range, low-power wireless communication for wearable devices.
• This advancement paves the way for more robust and extended-range body-coupled communication systems.