A low-power RF integrated circuit for implantable sensors

A low-power low-voltage analog signal processing circuit has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The circuit is capable of processing an analog sensor current and producing an ASK modulated digital signal with modulating signal frequency proportional to the sensor current level. An on-chip regulator has been included to stabilize the supply voltage received from an external RF power source. The circuit can operate with a power supply as low as 1 V and consumes only about 20 μW of power, which is therefore very suitable for implantable biomedical applications. The whole chip was laid out and fabricated in a 0.35 μm bulk CMOS technology. Experimental results show good agreement with the simulation results.