SCμM-V23: Towards A Crystal-Free System-On-Chip For IoT In 16nm

We present progress on the Single-Chip Micro Mote V (SCμM-V), a crystal-free system-on-chip (SoC) for internet-of-things (IoT) and microrobotic applications. The SoC includes a 32-bit RISC-V “Rocket” processor generated using the Rocket Chip generator and the Chipyard framework, a custom crystal-free 2.4 GHz transceiver that was designed to be standards-compatible with IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 1M PHY but is known not to work, crystal-free clock generation, on-chip power management, a μV-precision ADC, and a 90 GHz FMCW radar transmitter, all of which are still in the process of being brought up and characterized. SCμM-V was designed and taped out in one semester in the Intel 16 process by nine undergraduate and eleven graduate students as part of the spring 2023 iteration of the “Tapeout” class at UC Berkeley. In this paper, we discuss the design and architecture of SCμM-V, present preliminary measurements of its RF, power, clock, and digital blocks, and consider implications for deploying SCμM-V in a wireless sensor network.