Optical Power Delivery and Data Transmission in a Wireless and Batteryless Microsystem Using a Single Light Emitting Diode

In this paper, a light emitting diode (LED) is used both to harvest energy and to transmit data in a wireless and batteryless microsystem. The microsystem consists of an LED die (350 μm × 350 μm), an application specific integrated circuit (230 μm × 210 μm) and a storage capacitor (0.5 mm × 1 mm) forming a small footprint. A modular optical energy management and data transmission framework is presented. A proof of concept design that transmits a 16-bit identification number serially at a data rate depending on the amount of received optical power is described. The LED has a power efficiency of 22%; better than silicon photodiodes under monochromatic light of 680-nm wavelength. The higher voltage supplied by the LED compared with a silicon photodiode allows circuitry to be powered directly from it without requiring the elevation of the photovoltaic potential, as in the case of using on-chip silicon photodiodes. Data transmission task of the LED requires a charge pump circuit to elevate the photovoltaic voltage. The 0.8 V generated by the LED under a 680-nm laser beam of 4-mW/mm2 optical power density is elevated to 1.4 V for optical transmission at a rate of 4 kbit/s. Under 70-mW/mm2 optical power density, 1.3 V is elevated to 2.4 V, achieving a data rate of 26 kbit/s.

[1]  Joseph M. Kahn,et al.  An autonomous 16 mm/sup 3/ solar-powered node for distributed wireless sensor networks , 2002, Proceedings of IEEE Sensors.

[2]  Enrico Dallago,et al.  Integrated stabilized photovoltaic energy harvester , 2009, 2009 16th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems - (ICECS 2009).

[3]  J. Tuovinen,et al.  Millimeter-Wave Identification—A New Short-Range Radio System for Low-Power High Data-Rate Applications , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[4]  A. Hassibi,et al.  A Photovoltaic-Driven and Energy-Autonomous CMOS Implantable Sensor , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems.

[5]  Eli Yablonovitch,et al.  Strong Internal and External Luminescence as Solar Cells Approach the Shockley–Queisser Limit , 2012, IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.

[6]  A. Yalçinkaya,et al.  Optoelectronic CMOS Power Supply Unit for Electrically Isolated Microscale Applications , 2011, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[7]  P. Bhattacharya,et al.  Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices , 1993 .

[8]  Ming-Dou Ker,et al.  Design of charge pump circuit with consideration of gate-oxide reliability in low-voltage CMOS processes , 2006, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[9]  Thomas Stieglitz,et al.  An Optically Powered Single-Channel Stimulation Implant as Test System for Chronic Biocompatibility and Biostability of Miniaturized Retinal Vision Prostheses , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[10]  Tapan Samaddar,et al.  Charge pump circuit design , 2006 .

[11]  Guido Torelli,et al.  Efficiency comparison between doubler and Dickson charge pumps , 2005, 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[12]  Dominic C. O'Brien,et al.  Design and implementation of optical wireless communications with optically powered smart dust motes , 2009, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[13]  F. M. Mims III.  Sun photometer with light-emitting diodes as spectrally selective detectors. , 1992, Applied optics.

[14]  P. Nikitin,et al.  Antenna design for UHF RFID tags: a review and a practical application , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[15]  M. S. Unlu,et al.  Addressable floating light activated micro-electrical stimulators for wireless neurostimulation , 2011, 2011 5th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering.

[16]  E. Robinson,et al.  Do ants make direct comparisons? , 2009, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[17]  Y. B. Acharya,et al.  Spectral and emission characteristics of LED and its application to LED-based sun-photometry , 2005 .

[18]  Anantha Chandrakasan,et al.  Sub-threshold Design for Ultra Low-Power Systems , 2006, Series on Integrated Circuits and Systems.

[19]  Günhan Dündar,et al.  An Optically Powered CMOS Receiver System for Intravascular Magnetic Resonance Applications , 2012, IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems.

[20]  Kristofer S. J. Pister,et al.  SoC Issues for RF Smart Dust , 2006, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[21]  Gu-Yeon Wei,et al.  Survey of Hardware Systems for Wireless Sensor Networks , 2008, J. Low Power Electron..

[22]  A.P. Popov,et al.  A small OCA on a 1/spl times/0.5-mm/sup 2/ 2.45-GHz RFID Tag-design and integration based on a CMOS-compatible manufacturing technology , 2006, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[23]  J. Huijsing,et al.  Low-power low-voltage VLSI operational amplifier cells , 1996, Emerging Technologies: Designing Low Power Digital Systems.

[24]  M. Jamal,et al.  Tetherless Microgrippers With Transponder Tags , 2011, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[26]  Jörg Müller,et al.  Development of an Active Intravascular MR Device With an Optical Transmission System , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[27]  Gerald Farrell,et al.  LEDs as both Optical Sources and Detectors in Bi-directional Plastic Optical Fibre Links , 2006 .

[28]  Michel Steyaert,et al.  Novel cmos schmitt trigger , 1986 .

[29]  J. Rossiter,et al.  A novel tactile sensor using a matrix of LEDs operating in both photoemitter and photodetector modes , 2005, IEEE Sensors, 2005..