Power management of pulsed-index communication protocols

Pulsed-Index Communication (PIC) is a novel technique for single-channel, high-data-rate, low-power dynamic signaling that does not require any clock and data recovery (CDR). It is fully adapted to the simple yet robust communication needs of IoT devices and sensors. Prior work has focused on the power savings that this protocol can achieve as a result of the elimination of circuitry devoted to clock and data recovery. In this paper, we show that further power saving can be achieved using the duty cycle of the pulse as a power control parameter. This power control policy is applied to a single-wire link with significant power saving achieved above and beyond the savings due to the CDR elimination. These power savings are obtained without any impact on data rate. The pulse control policy is implemented using 45nm CMOS technology and verified on various, single-channel communication links.