Low Power, Low Voltage Design
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits
Low Power, Low Voltage Design
The demand for low power, low voltage design is driven by battery operated applications and low voltage technologies. We develop new optimized circuits and system architectures for micropower ICs with supply voltages below 1 Volt.
The weight and size of mobile devices are mainly determined by the required battery. The use of very low power ASICs significantly reduces the needed battery capacity. Low power, low voltage design enables the use of a wide range of different power supplies like solar cells and other energy harvesting concepts.
Project Examples
Integrated 3 Channel ECG Measuring System
This chip provides a 3 lead ECG measuring system without any external components and is compliant to the IEC 60601-2-47 requirements for ambulatory electrocardiographic systems.
It includes low power and low noise preamplifiers and sigma delta A/D converters as well as a digital filter which was especially designed for this purpose. The digital interface supports low power modes of connected microcontrollers or wireless communication interface ICs. Because of the outstanding power consumption it is particularly suitable for long-term mobile electrocardiogram measurements.
The chip is equipped with an additional configurable channel for measurements like temperature or respiration monitoring.
(Technology CMOS 0.35 µm, Power Consumption 2.2 mW @ 3.3V, 0.7 mW @2.0V, Output Data Rate 100 Samples/s, DC Input Range +/- 500mV, Supply Voltage 2.0 - 3.3 V, Silicon Area 25 mm²)
Solar Powered Letter Scale
An ultra low power ASIC has been designed for letter scales which are powered by small solar cells only. The device includes all analog and digital functions, especially the high precision weight measurement unit, the power management, the control unit and 5 digit LC Display driver. Mean power dissipation is less than 45 μW.
(Power Dissipation 45 µW, Resolution 12 bit, Minimal Illumination 100 Lux, Clock Frequency 4 MHz, Supply Voltage 3 V, Chip Size 30 mm²)
Handheld Measuring Equipment
Handheld Cable Locator IC: A low power ASIC with low noise high gain amplifiers for the detection of electromagnetic fields has been designed. It includes complex digital signal processing for tracing of cables. Automatic gain control, signal frequency and signature evaluation are main features of the device. Mean power dissipation is less than 500 μW.
Portable Magnetic Strip Reader: For security applications the collection of information from distributed magnetic strips in buildings and locations is done with portable magnetic strip readers. Since those battery operated devices have to be powered up for a long time, an ASIC was implemented with an ultra low power magnetic field measurement unit which wakes up the embedded 8051 controller. Standby power consumption for the measurement unit, the wake up circuit and a realtime clock oscillator is less than 10 μW.
Battery Operated Radiation Counter: For a portable Geiger Müller counter a low power mixed signal ASIC was implemented which includes two crystal oscillators, detection circuitry for the GM pulse, battery voltage monitoring and digital interface logic to a microprocessor. Less than 40 μW is needed for the measurement operation.
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