Abstract :
Wireless sensing is one of the major emerging applications for integrated circuits today, and with it comes a need for ultra-low power circuit design techniques. In particular, progress is required at both the component (e.g., wakeup radios, nW-level timers, efficient low-load DC-DC conversion) and system (ex: complete demonstrations of nW to μW range systems including energy harvesting) levels. Of particular interest is cost-effective harvesting microsystems that achieve energy autonomy, which eliminates the need to change batteries and/or extends lifetime indefinitely. Power management in such systems, with very low load currents and a variety of power sources, is a major challenge. Handling uncertainty in the energy budget of the system is another new challenge. Finally, coping with variability at all levels (ranging from memory bitcells up to communication synchronization) without incurring undue overhead is a difficult requirement to meet. This Special Issue will have particular emphasis on realizing complete microsystems in the ultra-low power regime. This Special Issue on Circuits and Systems for Energy-Autonomous Microsystems calls for contributions in the following areas: Ultra-low power circuit building blocks suitable for wireless sensing microsystems; Energy harvesting schemes and power management for very low power microsystems; New communication schemes that reduce average energy consumption (e.g., optical); Microsystem design using non-traditional devices and/or substrates (e.g., organic, flexible, CMOS-MEMS co-integration, etc.); Memory architectures aimed at ultra-low power operation including new embedded non-volatile memory types; Lightweight variation-tolerant design techniques to enable low voltage operation without excessive guardbanding; Analyses and demonstrations of wide operating range (PVT) ultra-low power circuits and systems; Microsystem demonstrations for applications of interest in wireless sensing (examples include biomedical, environmental sensing, infrastructure monitoring, surveillance); and Modeling and analysis frameworks highlighting system-level design choices.
