Bluetooth Low Energy RF Transceiver Technologies Simplify Board Design

Feb. 24, 2022

Two new 2.4 GHz RF transceiver technologies support the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) low-power, near-field communication standard.

Alix Paultre

Related To: Renesas Electronics

Renesas Electronics developed two 2.4 GHz RF transceiver technologies that support the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) low-power, near-field communication standard. These technologies also achieve a smaller mounting area and better power efficiency. Renesas has developed two new technologies to address these requirements: 1) a matching circuit technology that covers a wide impedance range and enables the IC to match a variety of antenna and board impedances without an external impedance-matching circuit; 2) a signal correction technology for locally generated reference signals that uses a small circuit to self correct inconsistencies in the circuit elements and variations in surrounding conditions without calibration.

Renesas has verified the effectiveness of these technologies on a Bluetooth LE RF transceiver circuit prototype built with a 22-nm CMOS process. With these new technologies, Renesas reduced the circuit area including the power supply to 0.84 mm2, the world’s smallest for a device of this type. This was achieved by modifying the receiver architecture and enhancements such as a low-current baseband amplifier with a small mounting area and a highly efficient class-D amplifier. Power consumption is 3.6 mW and 4.1 mW during reception and transmission respectively.

About the Author

Alix Paultre | Editor-at-Large, Microwaves & RF

Alix is Editor-at-Large for Microwaves & RF.

An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the U.S. military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications, most recently as Editor-in-Chief of Power Systems Design.

Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.