Optimization of a Power Management Process in a Printed Electronics Smart Label System

The topic of this research was to investigate and optimize power management of a printed electronics prototype device used for quality assurance of Ready-to-Eat food products. Printed electronics enables the manufacturing of thin, lightweight products and components, which can be part of a functional system. In order to maintain the lightweight and thin nature of the products, a small and thin battery is integrated in these types of autonomous systems. Power consumption of the system should be kept at low level to enable the use of printed batteries.The optimization of power consumption was done at software level. The goal was to reach so low power consumption that the printed prototype device can operate on a food package long enough using a small sized printed battery. Another goal was to study the effects of different operating modes to the power consumption and how much is it possible to affect to them.The research started by studying power management in embedded systems and finding out what was the device’s power consumption at the start. After that, a plan for optimization procedures was done. The optimization procedures were executed one by one and effects to power consumption was measured. This revealed exactly how much each procedure was affecting to power consumption. Usability also played a key role in finding the optimal solution. As a result, the device’s current consumption was optimized to the desired level where it can reach the targeted operating time. All functionalities and usability were maintained in the power optimization process.