A modular 1mm3 die-stacked sensing platform with optical communication and multi-modal energy harvesting

Wireless sensor nodes have many compelling applications such as smart buildings, medical implants, and surveillance systems. However, existing devices are bulky, measuring >;1cm³, and they are hampered by short lifetimes and fail to realize the “smart dust” vision of [1]. Smart dust requires a mm³-scale, wireless sensor node with perpetual energy harvesting. Recently two application-specific implantable microsystems [2][3] demonstrated the potential of a mm³-scale system in medical applications. However, [3] is not programmable and [2] lacks a method for re-programming or re-synchronizing once encapsulated. Other practical issues remain unaddressed, such as a means to protect the battery during the time period between system assembly and deployment and the need for flexible design to enable use in multiple application domains.