A design methodology for sub-0.5V crystal oscillators is shown to realize an all-sub-0.5V ultra low power RF transceiver for wireless sensor networks. To reduce the minimum operating voltage (V DDmin ) of the crystal oscillator, both the optimization of the gate width of the CMOS inverter in the crystal oscillator and the reduction in gate length by CMOS technology scaling are required. In accordance with the developed design methodology, a 39MHz crystal oscillator is designed and fabricated in a 40nm CMOS. The measured power consumption is 4.1W at 0.35V and 39MHz, and the power supply voltage is the lowest among the previously reported crystal oscillators.