Ultra-low power event-driven sensing

仪器仪表行业要求远程监控设备能够持续监听并消耗最低功率。设备可能会像传感器一样监听，测量物理参数，如温度、振动或泄漏，或者它们可能会监听遥控器来唤醒设备并触发诸如通信数据的操作。然而，始终在线的传感需要持续的电力，因此在许多情况下，这种监测是不可行的，因为它要么需要传感器接上电源，要么需要频繁更换电池。我们最近开发了一种集成电路，可以连续监听传感器，只使用传感器的功率，使电子设备的其余部分完全断电。电池现在不再需要更换，因为寿命可以达到几十年。目前该技术的固定阈值为0.5V，这将其应用限制在产生几伏信号的传感器子集和可应用0.5V传感器唤醒阈值的应用子集。该项目旨在进一步开发唤醒技术，以满足更广泛的传感器应用。该项目将把阈值从0.5V降低到10 mV，还将使其能够根据应用在较大范围内进行调节。我们将设计一个超低功耗(小于10纳瓦)的可配置前置放大器来连接探测器电路，同时仍然保持所有其他电路的断电，直到事件发生。这一水平的功放功耗小于小型硬币电池的自泄漏，因此在实际应用中不会降低传感器的寿命。本项目将设计并评估一种触发阈值低、寿命仅受电池自泄漏限制的传感器原型。我们将通过传感器制造商将这项技术商业化，提供可集成到其设备中的模块。

The instrumentation industry requires remote monitoring devices that continuously listen and consume minimal power. Devices may be listening as sensors, measuring physical parameters such as temperature, vibration or leakage, or they may be listening for remote control to wake up a device and trigger an action such as communicating data.However, always-on sensing draws continuous power, and therefore, in many situations, this kind of monitoring is not viable, as it would either require sensors to be wired into the mains, or frequent battery replacement.We recently developed an integrated circuit that listens to sensors continuously, using only the power from the sensor, enabling the rest of the electronics to be fully powered down. Batteries now no longer need replacing, as lifetimes of decades can be achieved. Currently the technology has a fixed threshold of 0.5V, which limits its use to a subset of sensors that produce signals of several volts and a subset of applications where a sensor wake up threshold of 0.5V is applicable.This project aims to further develop the wake up technology to address a much wider range of sensor applications. The project will reduce the threshold from 0.5V to 10mV and will also enable it to be tuned over a large range according to the application. We will design an ultra-low power (less than 10 nanowatt) configurable pre- amplifier to interface with the detector circuit, whilst still keeping all other circuitry powered off until an event occurs. This level of amplifier power consumption is smaller than the self-leakage from a small coin cell, so in practice will not reduce the lifetime of the sensor.This project will design and evaluate a prototype sensor device with low, variable trigger threshold and lifetime limited by battery self-leakage only. We will commercialise the technology through sensor manufacturers by providing modules to be incorporated within their devices.