Hardware Aware Optimization of an Ultra Low Power UWB Communication System

A wireless body area network with an average throughput of 500 kbps based on ultra-wideband pulse position modulation is considered. For a long battery autonomy a hardware aware system optimization with respect to the specific applications at hand is essential. A key feature to achieve power savings is low duty cycle signaling, and its effectiveness when combined with burst-wise transmission at high peak data rate. Exploiting this observation, an ultra-low power system is presented, jointly optimized with respect to application and hardware specific aspects. Based on an exhaustive survey of the state of the art literature, its power consumption is estimated significantly below 1 mW.