Design Techniques for Remote Calibration of Passive Wireless Microsystems

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Passive wireless microsystems (PWMs) harvest their power from RF waves. The absence of bulky batteries minimizes the physical dimension and cost of these microsystems, and removes the need for maintenance. As a result, PWMs can be embedded in products or implanted in living bodies permanently. Attributive to small size, wireless accessibility, programmability, low cost, and maintenance-free operation, PWMs have found a broad range of emerging applications including implantable bio-MEMS pressure sensors, retinal prosthetic devices, intraocular pressure monitoring, capsule endoscopy, pressure sensors for wireless arterial flow characterization, temperature sensors for human body and environmental monitoring, pH sensors, identification tags in logistics automation, and product authentication, to name a few. Because PWMs are subject to the effect of process spread, supply voltage fluctuation, and temperature variation (PVT), they must be calibrated prior to their intended operation. The physical inaccessibility of these microsystems mandates that their calibration be conducted wirelessly from the base station hereafter referred to as remote calibration. The long-term objective of this research project is to develop PWMs for emerging applications in healthcare, product authentication and counterfeiting, object tracking, assess management, security, etc. and capitalizing research findings as technology transfer to Canadian industry. The short-term objective of this prject is to develop new design techniques, circuit topology, and silicon realization for the remote calibration of PWMs so as to ensure their proper operation and reliable communications with the base station. The research project targets the calibration of the following key blocks of PWMs: power harvest, system clocks, analog-to-digital converters, voltage and current references, and voltage regulators. Time-mode approaches that scale well with technology and offer many intrinsic advantages as compared with voltage-mode or current-mode approaches will be fully explored and utilized in both the design and calibration of these blocks. This research project targets issues that are critical to the deployment of PWMs in emerging applications especially those where PWMs are physically inaccessible. As the techniques to be developed are applicable to general PWMs, the findings will be of a great importance and interest to the scientific community and industries. The project will also provide a rich learning environment for students by engaging them in the development and design of PWMs with boldly focused applications.