Wireless ultra-wide-band transmission prototype ASICs for low-power space and radiation applications

Abstract The paper describes the design and the fabrication of a microelectronic circuit composed of a sensor, an oscillator, a modulator, a transmitter and an antenna. The chip embeds a custom radiation sensor, provided by the silicon foundry that has fabricated the prototypes, but in principle the entire system can read a general sensor, as long as a proper interface circuit is used. The natural application for this circuit is radiation monitoring but the low-power budget extends the applications to space where wireless readout circuits can be applied to any type of sensors, even if not radiation sensitive devices.