Power management unit (PMU) for the battery-less smart sensor

Abstract

. With an influx of low power devices made possible due to technology advancement, sensors which are used to be powered by battery in the past will required a new and different power management unit which is able to simultaneously transfer both power and data wirelessly in bi-direction. The transmission standard is based on WISP (Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform) which includes an energy harvesting system, voltage regulator and MCU (Microcontroller Unit). The project will design a power management unit as an integrated circuit to improve the system efficiency while reducing overall area. Design improvements have been made on existing harvesting system and voltage regulator and discussion is included in this report for further improvement. Additionally, it is believed that WISP platform has a great potential to excel given the increased communications links between sensor and users.