Self-mixer wake-up receivers for ultra-low power wireless monitoring
This technology is a highly sensitive, ultra-low power wake-up receiver that consumes 5× less power and offers 10× greater sensitivity than state-of-the-art receiver architectures, enabling always-on wireless devices with dramatically extended battery life.
Unmet Need: Always-on monitoring with minimal power consumption and reliable signal detection
Wireless monitoring systems for warehouse inventory, smart homes, healthcare, agriculture, and infrastructure utilize electronic systems that spend most of their lifetime in a low-power “sleep” state while continuously waiting for a wireless wake-up signal to complete a desired operation. Because wake-up receivers remain active even when the rest of the system is powered down, they are often the primary source of power consumption, limiting battery life and increasing maintenance requirements. Conventional wake-up receivers also struggle to detect weak signals in noisy environments, reducing communication range and reliability. These challenges have limited the widespread use of autonomous, battery-powered and energy-harvesting wireless sensing systems.
The Technology: High-sensitivity wake-up receiver with ultra-low standby power
This technology is an ultra-low power, high-sensitivity wake-up receiver that significantly improves both energy efficiency and signal detection, enabling autonomous, long-lasting wireless monitoring devices. The receiver employs an optimized RF-matching network to receive the wake-up signal with higher quality. Incoming signals are processed through a cascade of single stage self-mixer circuits to improve energy detection and selectivity to interference with minimal power consumption. Compared with state-of-the-art wake-up receiver architectures, the technology delivers 5× lower power consumption and 10× greater sensitivity, enabling longer battery life, increased communication range, and more reliable wireless operation.
This technology has been demonstrated in a compact hardware prototype under both ideal and high-interference operating conditions
Applications:
- Wireless, autonomous monitoring
- Internet-of-Things and smart home connectivity
- Agricultural monitoring
- Warehouse inventory
- Integrated patient healthcare monitoring
- Wearable devices
- Industrial equipment monitoring
- Security and detection systems
- Supply chain tracking
- Energy-harvesting
- Remote wildlife and environmental monitoring
Advantages:
- 5× less power than competing circuit topologies
- 10× better sensitivity than competing circuit technologies
- Improved signal reception in areas of high signal noise
- Utilizes a cascading self-mixer to minimize power consumption
- Employs automatically activating low- and high-interference modes
- Supports extended battery life for always-on devices
- Increased communication range through enhanced sensitivity
- Enables less maintenance
- Scalable for widespread deployment
Lead Inventor:
Patent Information:
Patent Pending (US20260067137)
Related Publications:
Tech Ventures Reference:
IR CU19058, CU17088
Licensing Contact: Greg Maskel