IoT design space challenges: Circuits and systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly emerging application space, poised to become the largest electronics market for the semiconductor industry. IoT devices are focused on sensing and actuating of our physical environment and have a nearly unlimited breadth of uses. In this paper, we explore the IoT application space and then identify two common challenges that exist across this space: ultra-low power operation and system design using modular, composable components. We survey recent low power techniques and discuss a low power bus that enables modular design. Finally, we conclude with three example ultra-low power, millimeter-scale IoT systems.