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A 1.02 μW Battery-Less, Continuous Sensing and Post-Processing SiP for Wearable Applications
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
|January 25, 2019
Summary
This study presents a novel self-powered, battery-less wearable system. The ultra-low power system-on-chip enables continuous sensing and recovery from power loss, extending system lifetime for real-world applications.
Area of Science:
- Wearable technology
- Energy harvesting systems
- Integrated circuit design
Background:
- Advancing self-powered platforms requires systems with extended lifetime and robustness.
- Battery-less wearable devices need ultra-low power (ULP) system-on-chips (SoCs) capable of surviving long periods without charging and recovering from power loss.
- Current wearable technologies face limitations in power management and operational continuity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and develop a complete self-powered, battery-less wearable platform.
- To achieve reliable operation within microwatt power budgets for extended periods.
- To enable seamless recovery from power loss, maintaining the system's previous state.
Main Methods:
- Designed a heterogeneous system-in-package (SiP) integrating a ULP SoC, non-volatile memory (NVM), and a 2.4 GHz frequency shift key (FSK) radio.
- Incorporated an energy harvesting platform power manager (EH-PPM) for powering the SiP and external sensors.
- Developed a cold-boot management system (CBMS) for SoC boot and recovery from NVM, alongside a digital data-flow and analog front-end for ECG acquisition.
- Integrated a compression accelerator with the radio interface to reduce transmission time and power consumption.
Main Results:
- The designed SiP integrates ULP SoC, NVM, and FSK radio with custom ULP interfaces.
- The EH-PPM efficiently powers the SoC and peripherals with minimal operating current.
- The CBMS facilitates integration with ULP NVM for a wearable, self-powered system with power loss recovery.
- Achieved average power consumption of 507 nW for free-fall detection, 519 nW for temperature measurement, and 1.02 μW for continuous ECG monitoring.
Conclusions:
- The developed wireless sensing SiP offers a robust solution for self-powered wearable platforms.
- The ULP SoC design, including EH-PPM and CBMS, enables extended operation and reliable recovery from power loss.
- This technology significantly advances the feasibility of battery-less wearable devices for real-world applications.
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