Ultra-low power, miniaturized electronic systems for monitoring physical parameters with wireless communication capabilities and applications of same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022047178-A1
Application number	US-202017417180-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 3, 2020
Priority date	Jan 3, 2019
Publication date	Feb 17, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electronic system for monitoring a physical parameter includes an ADM comprising an accumulation mode sensor for measuring the physical parameter by generating electrical energy associated with the physical parameter in response to a surrounding condition, and an energy storing device coupled to the accumulation mode sensor for accumulatively storing the generated electrical energy; a power source; and an SoC coupling with the ADM and the power source, configured such that the stored electrical energy is monitored, and when the stored electrical energy is equal to or greater than a pre-defined threshold, a wake-up event is generated to trigger the SoC to operates in a run mode in which the physical parameter is wirelessly transmitted to a receiver and the stored electrical energy in the energy storing device is discharged, and then the SoC returns to a sleep mode in which a minimal power is consumed.

First claim

1 . An electronic system for monitoring a physical parameter, comprising:
an accumulation detection module (ADM) for continuously measuring the physical parameter in terms of exposure dose in an accumulation mode, wherein the ADM is a light-powered sensing system comprising at least one photodiode (PD) for continuously generating photocurrent with a magnitude that is proportional to an intensity of electromagnetic radiation in response to exposure to the electromagnetic radiation (EMR), at least one capacitor coupled to the at least one PD in parallel for storing charges accumulated from the generated photocurrent of the at least one PD, and at least one transistor having a source and a drain coupled to the at least one capacitor; a power source for operably providing power; and a system on a chip (SoC) coupling with the ADM and the power source and operably in a sleep mode in which a minimal power is consumed, or in a run mode, wherein the SoC comprises a wireless communication module, at least one analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a low-power comparator (LPCOMP) coupled to the source of the at least one transistor, and a controller coupled to the at least one ADC, the LPCOMP and the wireless communication module, and is configured such that in operation, the LPCOMP monitors a voltage across the at least one capacitor when the SoC operates in the sleep mode, and when the voltage is equal to or greater than a pre-defined threshold, generates a wake-up event that triggers the SoC to operate in the run mode in which the controller wirelessly transmits a signal of the voltage converted by the at least one ADC to a receiver through the wireless communication module, activates the at least one transistor to discharge the at least one capacitor and then returns the SoC to the sleep mode.

2 . The electronic system of claim 1 , wherein the SoC further comprises at least one general-purpose input/output (GPIO) coupled between a gate of the at least one transistor and the controller for operably activating the at least one transistor to discharge the at least one capacitor.

3 . The electronic system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one PD comprises a plurality of PDs, and each PD is responsive to a respective wavelength region of the electromagnetic radiation, wherein the ADM is characterized with a plurality of channels, and each channel has a respective one of the plurality of PDs, one of the at least one capacitor coupled to said respective PD and one of the at least one transistor coupled to said capacitor, for measuring the exposure dose of said respective wavelength region of the electromagnetic radiation.

4 . The electronic system of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of PDs comprises an UVA PD, a blue PD, and an infrared (IR) PD.

5 . The electronic system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one ADC comprises a plurality of ADCs, and each ADC is electrically couple to a respective one of the plurality of channels, and wherein the LPCOMP is configured to monitor the voltage in one of the plurality of channels, such that when the voltage is equal to or greater than the pre-defined threshold, the SoC enters the run mode and wirelessly transmits signals output from all the plurality of ADCs and simultaneously discharges said capacitors of all the plurality of channels.

6 . The electronic system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one PD comprises a plurality of PDs, the at least one capacitor comprises a plurality of capacitors and the at least one transistor comprise a first and second transistors, wherein the ADM is characterized with an outdoor ADM and an indoor ADM for monitoring the exposure outdoors and indoors, respectively, wherein the outdoor ADM has one of the plurality of PDs, one of the plurality of capacitors coupled to said PD and the first transistor coupled to said capacitor, and wherein the indoor ADM has the remaining PDs arranged in parallel, the remaining capacitors arranged in parallel and coupled to the remaining PDs and the second transistor coupled to the remaining capacitors.

7 . The electronic system of claim 6 , wherein the indoor ADM and the outdoor ADM are paired with a UVA PD and a third transistor and operably switchable based on the presence or absence of UVA radiation, wherein the presence or absence of UVA radiation results in a high or low value of a voltage, V UVA , output from the UVA PD, respectively.

8 . The electronic system of claim 7 , wherein the SoC is configured to automatically switch between the indoor ADM and the outdoor ADM through a two-to-one multiplexer, wherein the two-to-one multiplexer is configured to switch the ADM to the outdoor ADM when the voltage V UVA is in a high value, and to the indoor ADM when the voltage V UVA is in a low value.

9 . The electronic system of claim 8 , wherein a source and a drain of the third transistor are coupled to a source and a drain of the second transistor, respectively, and the UVA PD is coupled between a gate and the drain of the third transistor, such that in the outdoor ADM, the third transistor continuously discharges the indoor ADM to prevent excessive charge buildup on the corresponding capacitors.

10 . The electronic system of claim 9 , wherein the SoC further comprises an edge detector coupled between the controller and the UVA PD for monitoring the value of the voltage V UVA and generating a wake-up signal upon a rising edge when the value goes from low to high, or a falling edge when the value goes from high to low, corresponding to indoor-to-outdoor or outdoor-to-indoor switches, respectively, and wherein at each and every indoor/outdoor switching, the wake-up signal causes the controller to discharge both the indoor and outdoor ADMs, to update a 1-bit flag value with ‘0’ for indoor and ‘1’ for outdoor that is passed to an user interface as an indicator of activation of the indoor or outdoor ADM, and then to enter the sleep mode.

11 . An electronic system for monitoring a physical parameter, comprising:
an accumulation detection module (ADM) comprising at least one accumulation mode sensor for measuring the physical parameter by generating electrical energy associated with the physical parameter in response to a surrounding condition, and at least one energy storing device coupled to the at least one accumulation mode sensor for accumulatively storing the generated electrical energy; a power source for operably providing power; and a system on a chip (SoC) coupling with the ADM and the power source, configured such that the stored electrical energy is monitored, and when the stored electrical energy is equal to or greater than a pre-defined threshold, a wake-up event is generated to trigger the SoC to operates in a run mode in which the physical parameter associated with the stored electrical energy is wirelessly transmitted to a receiver and the stored electrical energy in the energy storing device is discharged, and then the SoC returns to a sleep mode in which a minimal power is consumed.

12 . The electronic system of claim 1 , being a dosimeter for monitoring exposure dose indoors, a dosimeter for adaptively monitoring exposure dose both outdoors and indoors, or a multichannel dosimeter for simultaneously monitoring exposure dose in different wavelength regions of electromagnetic radiation.

13 . The electronic system of claim 11 , wherein the ADM further comprises at least one transistor coupled to the at least one energy storing device for operably discharging the at least one energy storing device.

14 . The electronic system of claim 13 , wherein the SoC comprises a wireless communication module, a low-power comparator coupled to the at least

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern

Inventors

• Rogers John A
• Xu Shuai
• Heo Seung Yun
• Kwon Kyeongha
• Lee Jong Yoon

Classifications

• A61B2560/0242

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• A61B5/14552

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• H04Q2209/826

  where the data is sent periodically · CPC title

• A61B2562/029

  Humidity sensors · CPC title

• A61B5/6804

  Garments; Clothes · CPC title