WakeMod: A 6.9 µW Wake-Up Radio Module with –72.6 dBm Sensitivity for On-Demand IoT

Large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as asset tracking and remote sensing, demand multi-year battery lifetimes to minimize maintenance and operational costs. Traditional wireless protocols often employ duty cycling, introducing a tradeoff between latency and idle consumption – both unsuitable for event-driven and ultra-low power systems.A promising approach to address these issues is the integration of always-on wake-up radios (WuRs). They provide asynchronous, ultra-low power communication to overcome these constraints.This paper presents WakeMod, an open-source wake-up transceiver module for the 868 MHz ISM band. Designed for easy integration and ultra-low power consumption, it leverages the −75 dBm sensitive FH101RF WuR. WakeMod achieves a low idle power consumption of 6.9 µW while maintaining responsiveness with a sensitivity of −72.6 dBm. Reception of a wake-up call is possible from up to 130 m of distance with a −2.1 dBi antenna, consuming 17.7 µJ with a latency below 54.3 ms. WakeMod’s capabilities have further been demonstrated in an e-ink price tag application, achieving 7.17 µW idle consumption and enabling an estimated 8-year battery life with daily updates on a standard CR2032 coin cell. WakeMod offers a practical solution for energy-constrained, long-term IoT deployments, requiring low-latency, and on-demand communication.