Power awareness and energy efficiency in portable instrument networks

Today´s electronic portable instruments are highly sophisticated and are fully utilising advanced electronic components, sensors, and communications technologies. Many modern portable instruments are complex in their functionalities using multisensors and also can communicate with each other or other digital devices under stand alone operational modes. The progress in digital hardware, intelligent sensors, nano and microsensors, and software add remarkable features to these devices. As portable instruments get complex the efficient use of power and their power related reliability becomes a central issue. Power awareness and energy efficiency starts at the sensor level and builds up towards a much more complex system. This paper discusses power management and energy efficiency in portable instruments and gives examples on the energy efficient designs.