Ultra-Low-Power Circuits for Intermittent Communication

Self-sustainable energy harvesting for Internet of Things devices is challenging since ambient energy may be sporadic and unpredictable. This situation leads to frequent power failures that lead to intermittent operations, which prevent the reliability of data communications. This article presents fundamental hardware circuitry that enables reliable intermittent communications over wireless batteryless node networks. We emphasize two main mechanisms that ensure energy awareness and reliability: energy status-sharing and synchronized operation. We introduce novel low-power and self-sustainable plug-and-play circuits to support these mechanisms.