A Synchronization Method for Crystal-Less OFDM-Based Wireless Body Area Network Applications

Abstract

A synchronization method includes packet detection and frequency error estimation (PAFEE) is proposed for crystal-less OFDM-based wireless body area network (WBAN) applications to enlarge the frequency error tolerance between the transmitter and receiver. The packet detection method is designed to overcome the large frequency error. The estimated frequency offset (FO) value is provided to a crystal-less tunable clock source. The evaluation platform is the eCrystal WiBoC OFDM-based system. The system overall frequency error tolerance is extended 140x of existing wireless systems. The system is designed and simulated in a 90nm technology with 148.5 mu W computation power and 0.06mm(2) area overhead. Comparing to quartz crystal systems, the overall power reduction is 89.3%, and area reduction is 98.4%.