Optically Powered Energy Source in a Standard CMOS Process for Integration in Smart Dust Applications

Author

Jing Jing Liu ; Faulkner, Grahame ; Choubey, Bhaskar ; Jia Liu ; Ri Qing Chen ; O´Brien, Dominic C. ; Collins, Stephen

Author_Institution

Fujian Agric. & Forestry Univ., Fuzhou, China

Volume

2

Issue

6

fYear

2014

fDate

Nov. 2014

Firstpage

158

Lastpage

163

Abstract

In order to miniaturize nano-power sensor nodes or smart dust, an optically powered energy source is developed to replace traditional batteries or solar cells. This energy source consists of two photodiodes, which are P-well/DN-well and N-well/P-sub. The two photodiodes with an area of 1.5mm2 were fabricated using the UMC 0.25μm CMOS process and tested using an 830nm laser. Measurement results show that the energy source is able to generate a voltage from 0.5V to 0.8V with a 3.5% conversion efficiency. The proposed energy source was made using a standard CMOS process and therefore can to be integrated with the smart dust circuit on a single chip.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; low-power electronics; microsensors; photodiodes; telecommunication power management; wireless sensor networks; N-well-P-sub; P-well-DN-well; UMC CMOS process; conversion efficiency; laser; nanopower sensor nodes; optically powered energy source; photodiodes; size 0.25 mum; size 1.5 mm; size 830 nm; smart dust applications; smart dust circuit; solar cells; voltage 0.5 V to 0.8 V; CMOS process; Junctions; Photodiodes; Wireless sensor networks; Optically powered; photodiodes; sensor nodes; smart dusts; source on chip;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices Society, IEEE Journal of the

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2168-6734

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JEDS.2014.2341602

Filename

6861949