Loop Antenna Design for Ultra Low Power Transmitters

David C Yates
(1)
and Andrew S Holmes
(2)

Circuit and Systems Research Group
(1)

Optical and Semiconductor Devices Group
(2)
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Imperial College London
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom

Email
(1)
: david.yates@imperial.ac.uk
Email
(2)
: a.holmes@imperial.ac.uk


ABSTRACT

This paper presents a method for selecting the carrier frequency of an ultra-low power, size-constrained Colpitts
oscillator transmitter in order to minimise transmitter power consumption. The configuration studied uses a single-turn
loop antenna which also acts as the inductor of the frequency-defining LC tank. The characteristics of the antenna have
been modelled to determine its optimal electrical size in terms of maximising power transfer for a given constraint on
antenna dimensions. This analysis reveals that the loop antenna has a particular electrical size, corresponding to a
circumference to wavelength ratio of about 0.2, for which it both radiates efficiently and possesses a high Q-factor.
Evaluation of the frequency-dependent losses of the other circuit elements has allowed the preferred carrier frequency
to be determined as a function of antenna size. The results indicate that cm-scale devices should be able to achieve short
range, low data-rate transmission (e.g. 10 kb/sec over 1 m) with total transmitter powers of the order of 10 W.

INTRODUCTION

The fields of ubiquitous computing and medical sensing require ultra-low power, miniaturised, autonomous devices,
capable of wireless data and/or power transfer. This presents a unique design challenge for the RF engineer, who must
consider the trade-off between antenna efficiency and circuit losses, both of which increase with frequency. For many
applications, operation at microwatt average power levels is desirable, and current off-the-shelf low-power transceivers
can achieve data rates of only tens of bits per second [1] when operated at a sufficiently low duty cycle. Such low data
rates are insufficient for key applications such as ECG measurement.

The loop antenna is well suited to wireless sensing applications because of its omnidirectional nature, its possible dual
use as the inductor in an LC oscillator, and its widespread use in wireless power delivery. Previously a Colpitts
oscillator transmitter was reported in which a loop antenna doubled as the inductor in the LC tank [2]. In this paper we
present a design methodology for minimising the power consumption of this type of oscillator transmitter given a
constraint on the maximum antenna size. Optimisation of the design requires consideration of the desired characteristics
of an antenna in conjunction with those of the inductor in an LC oscillator.

LOOP ANTENNA ANALYSIS

The current distribution and input impedance of the electrically large loop antenna have been modelled using the
method detailed in [3]. From this the radiation resistance, directivity, and radiation efficiency have been evaluated
previously by the authors [1]. Comparison of the radiation efficiency (fig 1) with the antenna Q factor (fig 2) yields a
very important result, namely that the electrical size of the antenna can be chosen such that both the radiation efficiency
and the Q factor are high. The latter is desirable for high power efficiency and low oscillator phase noise.

Analysing the power transfer from transmitter to receiver has yielded further important results. In particular, it has been
shown that, given a certain maximal constraint on the antenna size, the optimal transmission frequency in terms of
maximum power transfer corresponds to an antenna electrical size of approximately 0.2, as shown in fig 3. Comparison
with fig 2 clearly shows that the loop antenna of this size also has a high Q-factor (>300). The loop antenna, being
inductive below an electrical size of around 0.4, is thus suitable for use as the high Q inductor in an LC oscillator
transmitter. A further point to note is that a loop antenna with an electrical size of around 0.2 has relatively low
directivity, which can be an advantage for short-range links between mobile devices. The directivity begins to increase
sharply above an electrical size of about 0.5 [1], where the Q is much lower.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Circumference to Wavelength Ratio
R
a
d
i
a
t
i
o
n

E
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Circumference to Wavelength Ratio
l
o
g
1
0

Q

F
a
c
t
o
r

Fig. 1 Radiation Efficiency versus Electrical Size

Fig. 2 Q-factor versus Electrical Size


0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
0.15
0.16
0.17
0.18
0.19
0.2
0.21
0.22
0.23
Coil Radius /m
O
p
t
i
m
a
l

C
i
r
c
u
m
f
e
r
e
n
c
e

t
o

W
a
v
e
l
e
n
g
t
h

R
a
t
i
o

DATA


Fig. 3 Optimal Electrical Size of Loop Antenna

Fig. 4 Colpitts Oscillator Transmitter

COLPITTS OSCILLATOR ANALYSIS

The Colpitts oscillator transmitter assumed in our analysis is shown in fig 4. The modulation scheme is onoff keying
(OOK), achieved by switching the bias current via the gate of M2.

Required Oscillation Amplitude
According to the Friis far-field transmission formula, the received power P
R
may be expressed in terms of the
transmitted power P
T
as:

T R T R T R
P
r
D D P
2
2
0
) 4 (

= (1)
where D
T
, D
R
are the directivities of the transmitter antenna and receiver antenna respectively,
T
,
R
are the
corresponding antenna radiation efficiencies,
0
is the carrier wavelength and r is the transmission distance. Assuming
the transmitter in fig 4, this equation may be re-written to show explicitly the oscillation amplitude V
0
on the LC tank,
giving:

2
4
2
0
2 2
0
2 2
2
0
V
L R
R
) r (
D D P
T
RAD
R T R R
+

= (2)
In (2) R
RAD
is the series radiation resistance of the loop antenna, R
T
is the sum of the radiation and loss resistances, L is
the loop inductance, and
0
is the carrier frequency.

The input power P
R,req
required at the receiver for successful demodulation may be expressed quite generally as:

req req R
SNR kTB F P =
,
(3)
where k is Boltzmanns constant, T is the absolute temperature, and F is the receiver noise figure. Typically the
bandwidth B is assumed to be equal to the bit rate, while SNR
req
is taken to be the input-referred signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) required for a specified bit-error-rate (BER), usually 10
-9
. SNR in this context is taken as the ratio of the signal
power to the noise power contained within the bandwidth B.

The value of SNR
req
depends on the modulation/demodulation scheme and on the spectral purity of the carrier. In
situations where the carrier is disturbed by phase noise, and has a linewidth that is non-negligible compared to the data
rate, the pre-detection bandwidth of the receiver has to be increased to spectrally contain the signal, and this inevitably
leads to an increase in the noise power at the detector output. This problem has been studied extensively in the context
of optical communications systems subject to laser phase noise. For example, it is shown in [4] that, for an optical
heterodyne system with OOK modulation and square-law detection, SNR
req
for BER = 10
-9
increases from 19 dB to 23
dB as the linewidth is increased from zero to 10x the data rate. It has been assumed in the present work that a similar
variation of SNR
req
with carrier linewidth will apply to an RF system based on oscillator transmitters.

Bias Current and Power Consumption
An energy conservation approach has been used to determine the relationship between the oscillation amplitude and the
drain current i
M1
(t) of transistor M1. Assuming that capacitors C
1
and C
2
contribute negligible resistive losses the
following equation has been derived:
dt t i t n
T
L R
V R
M
T
T
T
T
) ( ) cos( ) 1 (
1
) ( 2
1
0
0
0
2 2
0
2
0
0

=
+
(4)
where T
0
=2/
0
is the oscillation period, and n
T
is the capacitive tap ratio.

A second relationship between V
0
and i
M1
(t) can be obtained using the EKV MOST model [5], suitable due to its
validity in all regions of operation. Assuming saturation this gives:

( )
2
0 0
1
2
) cos(
exp 1 ln ) (

|
|
.
|

\
|
(

+
+ =
T
T S P
S M
U
t V n V V
I t i (5)
Here I
S
is the specific current, V
P
is the pinch-off voltage,
S
V is the dc voltage at the source of M1 during oscillation, U
T

is the thermal voltage and takes into account the reduction in the feedback voltage due to non-quasi-static effects.

Solving (4) and (5), the value of ) (
S P
V V may be determined for a given V
0
, allowing the required bias current I
B
to be
calculated as the average value of i
M1
(t). Fig 5 shows V
0
versus I
B
for particular antenna dimensions and oscillation
frequency. These results were obtained using a search algorithm implemented in MATLAB. It can be seen that the bias
current required to achieve a given oscillation amplitude reduces with decreasing frequency and also with increasing
antenna Q. This shows that both the antenna Q and the operating frequency will significantly affect the power
consumption.

Effect of Frequency on Transistor Performance
Two high-frequency transistor effects have been considered in the analysis. The first is normally known as the non-
quasi-static effect, whereby the charge can not be considered to change instantaneously in the channel at high
frequencies. This was taken into account using the model presented in [6]. The second effect is the limiting of operation
frequency due to the dominance of the gate-drain capacitance. This restricts the width of the channel, which should
otherwise be maximised to increase the transconductance.

OPTIMAL FREQUENCY AND POWER CONSUMPTION

The methods and equations presented above have been combined with the loop antenna analysis to identify the
preferred frequency in terms of minimal power consumption for a given constraint on antenna radius. The procedure is
as follows: at each frequency of interest, the variation of oscillation amplitude with bias current is determined for a
range of antenna sizes using (4) and (5), and the corresponding oscillator linewidths are estimated using methods
described in [7]. For a given antenna size constraint, the minimum bias current for which P
R
P
R,req
is then derived with
the aid of (2) and (3), assuming a variation of SNR
req
with carrier linewidth as presented in [4]. By comparing the
min{I
B
} values obtained for different frequencies, the optimal frequency can be determined.

The above optimsation process was implemented numerically in MATLAB using MOS transistor parameters from the
Peregrine Semiconductor 0.5m silicon-on-sapphire CMOS process. Fig. 6 shows the preferred frequency, chosen from
one of 4 ISM bands, and the bias current needed for BER = 10
-9
as a function of the maximum allowable antenna size,
assuming a data rate of 10 kb/sec and a transmission distance of 1 m. The bias currents correspond to power
consumptions in the range of 5-15 W at a fixed supply voltage of 1.5 V.
5 10 15 20 25 30
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
Bias Current /A
O
s
c
i
l
l
a
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Maximum Allowed Antenna Radius /m
M
i
n
i
m
u
m

B
i
a
s

C
u
r
r
e
n
t

/

A


Fig. 5 Oscillation Voltage Amplitude versus Bias
Current (key below, c

electrical size)
Fig. 6 Minimum Bias Current for Successful
Demodulation, assuming F = 20 dB,
B = 10 kHz, data rate = 10 kb/s, r = 1 m
- 434MHz, c

= 0.18 -- 434MHz, c

= 0.1
: 2.4GHz, c

= 0.18 -. 2.4GHz, c

= 0.1


- 5.8GHz : 2.4GHz -- 900MHz -. 434MHz
The preferred frequency essentially balances antenna Q, radiation efficiency, power transfer, and the frequency
dependence of the MOS transistor. Moving left-to-right in fig 6, the boundaries between preferred frequencies occur at
points where the improvement in MOS performance in moving to the lower operating frequency compensates for the
associated reduction in antenna performance (Q-factor and radiation efficiency combined). To the right of each
boundary, the required bias current decreases with increasing antenna radius due to the increase in Q-factor and
radiation efficiency. This continues until the antenna electrical size reaches the optimal value of around 0.2. Beyond this
point there is no advantage to be gained by further increasing the antenna size, and so the antenna size and hence the
required bias current remain constant until the next boundary.

CONCLUSIONS

By correctly choosing the operating frequency for a given antenna size constraint, and by understanding the optimal
size of the loop antenna within a given preferred frequency band, a truly ultra-low power (ca 10 W) Colpitts oscillator
transmitter can be designed. Choosing the preferred frequency as shown in fig. 6 allows the dual requirements of high
antenna Q-factor and high antenna radiation efficiency to be achieved.

REFERENCES

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Radio Links, IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems I, vol. 51, no. 7, July 2004, pp. 1405-1413.
[2] B. Ziaie, K. Najafi, and D. J. Anderson, A low-power miniature transmitter using a low-loss silicon platform for
biotelemetry, Proc. IEEE 19
th
Int. Conf. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Soc., vol. 5, 1997, pp. 2221-2224.
[3] R. W. P. King and G. S. Smith, Antennas in Matter: Fundamentals, Theory and Applications. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1981.
[4] G. Einarsson, J. Strandberg, I. T. Monroy, Error probability evaluation of optical systems disturbed by phase
noise and additive noise, IEEE J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 13, no. 9, 1995, pp. 1847-1852.
[5] C. C. Enz, F. Krummenacher and E. A. Vittoz, An Analytical MOS Transistor Model Valid in All Regions of
Operation and Dedicated to Low-Voltage and Low-Current Applications, Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal
Processing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, July 1995, pp. 83-114.
[6] T. Manhu, Microwave CMOS Device Physics and Design, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 34, no.
3, March 1999, pp. 227-285.
[7] D. Ham and A. Hajimiri, Virtual Damping and Einstein Relation in Oscillators, IEEE Journal of Solid-State
Circuits, vol. 38, no. 3, March 2003, pp 407-418.