A 500 mV 650 pW random number generator in 130 nm CMOS for a UWB localization system

This paper presents an ultra low power random number generator (RNG) for a UWB RFID and Localization system. It amplifies noise by using a chain of identical inverters to generate a serial output stream of random bits. The circuit consumes only 0.65nW from a supply voltage V
_DD
= 0.5V. The degree of randomness of the output bitstream is examined with the NIST tests.