Abstract
During the last few years, WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) has emerged and deployed in a wide range of applications attracting many research and industrial communities. Low power is one such crucial constraint where these systems are supplied with small battery. Several technologies and architectures have been proposed for design ultra-low power motes. In this paper, we present a survey on wireless sensor node architectures proposed to optimize the performances in particular real-time, low power, cost and time to market. Despite their variety, these architectures are consisted basically of processing unit, acquisition unit, transmission unit and power supply unit. The difference resides on components and technologies that constitute these units. Each technology is discussed in relation to its advantages and limitations.