Advancing Wireless Robotic Skin: A 60 GHz Receiver with Bondwire Antenna Supplied by a Perovskite Solar Cell

In this work, we present an ultra-compact 60 GHz receiver, fully integrated with antenna and supplied by a micro perovskite solar cell. This is a significant contribution towards i.e. ultra-compact wireless robotic skin, overcoming the wiring issue of current robotic skins. Low power operation of the on-off keying (OOK) receiver is achieved by aggressive duty cycling. The receiver chip is fabricated in a 22 nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) CMOS technology, occupying an area of only <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{0}.\mathbf{67}\mathbf{mm}^{\mathbf{2}}$</tex> using a 3D bondwire antenna with 1 mm length and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{17}\boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$</tex> thickness. The active area of the perovskite solar cell, which is needed to supply the receiver core, is <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{4}.\mathbf{5}\mathbf{mm}^{\mathbf{2}}$</tex>. Thus, the solar cell dimensions are comparable to those of the receiver, demonstrating the possible compactness. As a proof of concept, a 10 Mbps pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) is received over a wireless link distance of 70 cm with the receiver dissipating <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{170} \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{W}$</tex>. The power is provided by the solar cell operating outside in the sun. Moreover, challenges regarding wireless node placement, antenna packaging and power management are identified.