The EcoChip: A Wireless Multi-Sensor Platform for Comprehensive Environmental Monitoring

This paper presents a new autonomous wireless sensor platform intended for the monitoring of microorganisms and molecules found in harsh environments, like in the northern climates. The EcoChip includes a layered multiwell plate that allows the growth of single strain microorganisms, within a well of the plate, isolated from environmental samples from Northern habitats. It can be deployed in the field for continuous monitoring of microbiological growth within 96 individual wells through a multichannel electro-chemical impedance monitoring circuit. Additional sensors are provided for monitoring luminosity, humidity, temperature, pH, and CO2 release. The embedded electronic board is equipped with a flash memory to accumulate and store sensor data for long periods of time, as well as with a low-power micro-controller, and a power management unit to control and supply all electronic building blocks. When a receiver is located within the transmission range of the EcoChip, a low-power wireless transceiver allows transmission of sensor data stored from on-board memory. We report the measured performance of the system, and we present experimental results obtained in the field during a pilot study performed with the EcoChip deployed in the village of Kuujjuarapik, at a latitude of 55 degrees, in Northern Canada.