Experimental Investigations on RF Filters in Wake-up Receiver Circuits

Wake-up receivers (WuRxs) implementations have emerged as a groundbreaking solution to address the challenges of energy consumption and communication latency in battery-constrained applications. These receivers enable devices to be in continuous receiving mode while minimizing power consumption. WuRxs are subject to out-of-band interferences due to the shared nature of the communication environment. These interferences can degrade the WuRx's overall performance. RF filters serve as a common technique to attenuate unwanted signals from nearby frequency bands hence ensuring the receiver's immunity to interference and enhancing the detection reliability of wake-up signals. In this work, we investigate the impact of integrating off-the-shelf RF filters into WuRxs front-ends, focusing on both laboratory-controlled experiments and real-world scenarios. The findings reveal that although the introduction of RF filters slightly reduces the WuRx sensitivity, it significantly enhances its resilience to interference and reduces random losses. This research highlights the trade-offs involved in filter integration, providing essential insights for optimizing WuRx implementations.