For low-power sensor networks, a compact design of advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm is needed. A very small AES core for ZigBee devices that accelerates computation in AES algorithms is proposed in this paper. The proposed AES core requires only one S-Box, which plays a major role in the optimization. It consumes less power than other block-wide and folded architectures because it uses fewer logic gates. The results show that the proposed design significantly decreases power dissipation; however, the resulting increased clock cycles for 128-bit block data processing are reasonable for IEEE 802.15.4 standard throughputs.