Out of Thin Air: Energy Scavenging and the Path to Ultralow-Voltage Operation

In recent years there has been much interest in and progress toward the design of energy efficiency systems. The ultimate vision is to operate electronic circuits from ambient energy (see Figure 1). Gene Frantz, a pioneer in signal processing architectures and systems, has driven the vision of ultralow-power electronics. To continue scaling the energy per operation, Gene has proposed a number of concepts, from the use of new signaling and computing schemes to ultralow-voltage (ULV) design, multicore signal processors, and new computational substrates. He has also outlined the critical components of an energy-harvesting system, including the notion of an energy buffer. This article addresses one critical aspect of ultralow-power electronics: ULV design, along with the required support structures.