Heterogeneous System-on-a-Chip Design for Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks in Non-Benign Environments
Abstract
A new dimension of system architecture design is emerging where hundreds to thousands of ultralight (<10g) sensor nodes will collectively perform a spectrum of wireless sensor network missions in a distributed fashion. To support this architecture, high volume production of sensor nodes at low cost is required. This proposed basic research project is aimed at the development of a technique to design and fabricate self-powered wireless sensor nodes monolithically as a system-on-a-chip (SoC) with a commercially available complementary metal-on-silicon (CMOS) very large scale integration (VLSI) process. Two essential technologies specifically targeted at non-benign environments have been investigated and reported on: integrated solar cells in CMOS and radiation hardening by design of asynchronous logic. A first-ever design for integrated solar cells in commercial CMOS is presented. Two prototype designs have been designed, fabricated, and tested. The average efficiency of the first prototype is 2.4%, compared to an estimated, but unverified 1% from previous work. The actual efficiency of the junction is 8.3%, without considering the metallization overhead. An improved design demonstrates 3.44% efficiency, a 40% improvement. The junction efficiency alone is 11.3%. However, power from these first two prototypes cannot be harnessed properly in the current implementation. A final design, overcoming this limitation, has been submitted for fabrication and will be reported in a later publication. This novel development has potential widespread application to a rapidly growing number of solar self-powered SoC designs of any type.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA491470
Entities
People
- David J. Barnhart
- Tanya Vladimirova
Organizations
- University of Surrey