CMOS RFIC ARCHITECTURES FOR IEEE 802.15.4 NETWORKS

While the wireless industry has been focusing on increasing high data throughput, the emerging IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) protocol targets a set of applications that require simple wireless connectivity, relaxed throughput, very low power consumption, and lower module cost. This article will summarize the 2.4 GHz radio physical layer (PHY) technical specifications, examine alternative modem implementations, and compare possible architectures for the receiver and the transmitter in terms of performance, estimated chip area, and production cost.