Research

List of Publications

For a complete and up-to-date list refer to Research Gate or ORCID.

The Necessity of Comparators in Wake-Up Receiver Circuits
Robert Fromm, Olfa Kanoun, Faouzi Derbel
Conference article for SSD 2024
Manuscript (PDF)

Quasi-Real-Time Wireless Communication Based on Wake-Up Receivers with a Latency Below 5 ms
Robert Fromm, Olfa Kanoun, Faouzi Derbel
Conference article for I²MTC 2024
Manuscript (PDF)

Univocal and Reliable Addressing Patterns for Wake-Up Receivers based on Low-Frequency Pattern Matchers
Robert Fromm, Olfa Kanoun, Faouzi Derbel
Journal article published in IEEE Sensors Journal, 2024
DOI, Manuscript (PDF)

An Improved Wake-Up Receiver Based on the Optimization of Low-Frequency Pattern Matchers
Robert Fromm, Olfa Kanoun, Faouzi Derbel
Journal article published in MDPI Sensors, 2023
DOI, PDF

Improved Wake-Up Receiver Architectures with Carrier Sense Capabilities for Low-Power Wireless Communication
Robert Fromm, Lydia Schott, and Faouzi Derbel
Book chapter, published 2022
DOI, Manuscript (PDF)

Reliable Wake-up Receiver with Increased Sensitivity using Low-Noise Amplifiers
Robert Fromm, Olfa Kanoun, and Faouzi Derbel
Conference article for SSD 2022
DOI, Manuscript (PDF)

An Efficient Low-power Wake-up Receiver Architecture for Power Saving for Transmitter and Receiver Communications
Robert Fromm, Lydia Schott, and Faouzi Derbel
Conference article for SENSORNETS 2021
DOI, Manuscript (PDF)

Wake-up Receiver

Wake-up receivers (WuRxs) are currently my main research topic and the topic of my upcoming dissertation. In the following some few words explaining the importance of WuRx:

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in research and industry is steadily increasing. WSNs are essential for the sensing and collection of environmental data in different application fields. Powering sensor nodes using small batteries is often mandatory. Recharging and swapping batteries is usually not possible or would lead to higher maintenance costs. Parameters like latency, transmission range, and sensitivity are likewise major parameters when designing the hardware of a sensor node.

A continuous or a real-time wireless communication is nowadays essential for many applications when building an autonomous WSN. To maintain such a wireless communication even with modern wireless transceivers would lead to a power consumption greater than 10 mW. In order to power such a sensor node for a long period with a battery, the receiving and sending intervals need to decrease significantly. This inevitably leads to increased latency and response times of the WSN.

A WuRx is a special RF receiver that enables the sensor node to be in a continuous receiving mode. Different approaches with passive and active components exist in order to keep the WuRx power consumption below 10 µW. The following figure shows how a WuRx can be integrated into a sensor node.