A Self-Powered System for Large-Scale Strain Sensing by Combining CMOS ICs With Large-Area Electronics Yingzhe Hu, Student Member , IEEE , Liechao Huang , Student Member , IEEE

Abstract

We present a 2nd-generation system for high-resolu- tion structural-health monitor ing of bridges and buildings. The system combines large-area electronics (LAE) and CMOS ICs via scalable interfaces based on ind uctive and capacitive coupling. This enables architectures where the functional strengths of both technologies can be leveraged to enable large-scale strain sensing scalable to cm resolutio n yet over large-area sheets. The system consists of three subsystems: (1) a power-management subsystem, where LAE is leverage d for solar-power harvesting, and CMOS is leveraged for power conversion and regulation; (2) a sensing subsystem, where LAE is leveraged for dense strain sensing, and CMOS is leveraged f or multi-sensor acquisition; and (3) a communication subsys tem, where LAE is leveraged for long-range interconnects, and CMOS is leveraged for low-power transceivers. The power-man agement subsystem achieves 30% efficiency for DC-AC power inversion and inductive power de- livery to the CMOS IC and 80.5% overall ef ficiency for generating three voltages via DC-DC converters. The sensing subsystem has a readout noise level of 23 Strain (141 Strain including sensor noise), at an energy/meas . of 148 nJ and 286 nJ for readout and sensor-accessing control, respectively. The communication subsystem achieves an energy/bit of 14.6 pJ/4.3 pJ (Tx/Rx) at a distance of 7.5 m and a data rate of 2 Mb/s.