Micropower converters for internet-of-things devices

得益于电子电路的小型化，计算、通信和传感功能可以集中到越来越小的元素中，然后无缝地集成到我们周围的物体中，这些物体反过来可以变得越来越智能，并在广泛的物联网(IoT)中互联互通。然而，就可用能量、计算能力和通信带宽而言，这些物理对象的资源有限。因此，如果我们想要开发可以扩大规模以实现智能世界承诺的物联网设备和应用，我们必须特别关注资源效率。 这项研究计划将开发新的微功率转换器，将其集成在同一硅片上，包含其他计算、通信和传感功能。一个IoT对象只需要一个芯片，它将比传统设备更小、更经济、更节能。微功率转换器将通过向芯片上实现的不同功能提供优化的电压电平，以及在数字电路以节能模式运行时降低电源电压来提高能效。微型功率转换器还将通过调整电池或能量采集设备产生的摆动电压来延长物联网设备的运行条件。 能源限制施加的限制已经大大限制了设计者原本可能预期的性能。因此，新的微功率转换器将通过实现分布式功率处理来共同优化能源和运行性能，从而解决这一能源挑战。这样的优化将显著提高系统效率、电池寿命，并延长能量收集的运行时间。反过来，这些改进将是创建当今不可想象的可持续物联网应用的关键，这将改变我们的生活方式，并将成为创造新产品和服务的主要引擎。

Thanks to the miniaturization of electronic circuits, computing, communication and sensing functions can be concentrated into smaller and smaller elements, and then integrated seamlessly into the objects around us, which in turn can become "smart" and interconnected in a widespread "internet of things" (IoT). However these physical objects have limited resources in terms of available energy, computing power, and communication bandwidth. Therefore, we must pay special attention to resource efficiency, if we want to develop IoT devices and applications that can be scaled up to fulfil the promise of the smart world. This research program will develop new micropower converters to be integrated on the same silicon chip containing other computing, communication, and sensing functions. An IoT object will need only one chip, which will be tiny, economical, and more energy efficient than conventional devices. The micropower converters will improve energy efficiency by supplying optimized voltage levels to the different functions implemented on chip, and by scaling down the supply voltage when digital circuits operate in energy-saving mode. The micropower converters will also extend the operating conditions of the IoT devices by adjusting the wobbly voltage generated by a battery or by an energy harvesting device. The limitations imposed by energy constraints are already sharply curbing the performance designers might otherwise expect. Therefore the new micropower converters will address this energy challenge by enabling distributed power processing for jointly optimizing energy and operating performance. Such optimization will lead to significantly enhanced system efficiency, battery lifetime, and extended operation on energy harvesting. In turn these improvements will be key to create sustainable IoT applications unimaginable today, which will change the way we live and will be a major engine for creating new products and services.