A

SEMINAR REPORT

ON

MOBILE PROCESSORS
Submitted For
The Partial Fulfilment of Degree Of

Bachelor of Technology
In
Electronics & Communication Engineering
(Rajasthan Technical University, Kota)

(Session 2010-2011)
Submitted To: Submitted By:
Mr. AJAY BAIRWA SUMIT SHARMA
Faculty, Seminar In-charge VIII Sem. (ECE)
Department of ECE Roll No. 07ESTEC101

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

STANI MEMORIAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, PHAGI
JAIPUR
MAY 2010-2011
© Stani Memorial College Of Engineering And Technology, Jaipur
All right reserved

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere thanks to my Head of Department, Mr. Abhishek Sharma, Mr.

Ajay Bairwa (Senior Faculty of E.C.E) for extending his valuable guidance,

support for literature, critical reviews and above all the moral support he had

provided to me.

I am also indebted to all the teaching and non- teaching staff of the department of

Electronics & Communication Engineering for their cooperation and suggestions,

which is the spirit behind this report. Last but not the least, I wish to express my

sincere thanks to all my friends for their goodwill and constructive ideas.

-SUMIT SHARMA

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 ABSTRACT

Advances in hardware technology has enabled very compact, autonomous and mobile nodes

each having one or more sensors, computation and communication capabilities ,and a power

supply. The Smart Dust project is exploring whether an autonomous sensing, computing, and

communication system can be packed into a cubic-millimeter mote to form the basis of

integrated, massively distributed sensor networks. It focuses on reduction of power consumption,

size and cost. To build these small sensors, processors, communication devices, and power

supply , designers have used the MEMS (Micro electro mechanical Systems) technology.

Smart Dust nodes otherwise known as “motes” are usually of the

size of a grain of sand and each mote consists of :

1. sensors

2. transmitter & receiver enabling bidirectional wireless communication.

3. processors and control circuitory

4. power supply unit

Using smart dust nodes, the energy to acquire and process a sample and then transmit some data

about it could be as small as a few nanoJoules. These dust motes enable a lot of applications,

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because at these small dimensions ,these motes can be scattered from aircraft for battle field

monitoring or can be stirred into house paint to create the ultimate home sensor network.

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 CONTENTS

• WHAT IS A SMART DUST?

• THE MEMS TECHNOLOGY IN SMART DUST

• SMART DUST TECHNOLOGY

• OPERATION OF THE MOTE

• COMMUNICATING WITH A SMART DUST

• OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

• LISTENING TO A DUST FIELD

• CORE FUNCTIONALITY SPECIFICATION PERFORMING A TASK

• MAJOR CHALLENGES

• APPLICATIONS

• HOW FAR THEY HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED

• SUMMARY

• REFERENCES

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 WHAT IS A SMART DUST?

Autonomous sensing and communication in a cubic millimeter Berkeley’s Smart Dust project,

led by Professors Pister and Kahn, explores the limits on size and power consumption in

autonomous sensor nodes. Size reduction is paramount, to make the nodes as inexpensive and

easy-to-deploy as possible. The research team is confident that they can incorporate the requisite

sensing, communication, and computing hardware, along with a power supply, in a volume no

more than a few cubic millimeters, while still achieving impressive performance in terms of

sensor functionality and communications capability. These millimeter-scale nodes are called

“Smart Dust.” It is certainly within the realm of possibility that future prototypes of Smart Dust

could be small enough to remain suspended in air, buoyed by air currents, sensing and

communicating for hours or days on end.

'Smart dust' — sensor-laden networked computer nodes that are just cubic millimetres in volume.

The smart dust project envisions a complete sensor network node, including power supply,

processor, sensor and communications mechanisms, in a single cubic millimetre. .Smart dust

motes could run for years , given that a cubic millimetre battery can store 1J and could be backed

up with a solar cell or vibrational energy source The goal of the Smart Dust project is to build a

millimeter-scale sensing and communication platform for a massively distributed sensor

network. This device will be around the size of a grain of sand and will contain sensors,

computational ability, bi-directional wireless communications, and a power supply. Smart dust

consists of series of circuit and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) designs to cast those

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functions into custom silicon. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) consist of extremely

tiny mechanical elements, often integrated together with electronic circuitry.

THE MEMS TECHNOLOGY IN SMART DUST

Smart dust requires mainly revolutionary advances in miniaturization, integration & energy

management. Hence designers have used MEMS technology to build small sensors, optical

communication components, and power supplies. Microelectro mechanical systems consists of

extremely tiny mechanical elements, often integrated together with electronic circuitory. They

are measured in micrometers, that is millions of a meter. They are made in a similar fashion as

computer chips. The advantage of this manufacturing process is not simply that small structures

can be achieved but also that thousands or even millions of system elements can be fabricated

simultaneously. This allows systems to be both highly complex and extremely low-cost.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors,

actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through micro fabrication technology.

While the electronics are fabricated using integrated circuit (IC) process sequences (e.g., CMOS,

Bipolar processes), the micromechanical components are fabricated using compatible

"micromachining" processes that selectively etch away parts of the silicon wafer or add new

structural layers to form the mechanical and electromechanical devices. MEMS realizes a

complete System On chip technology.

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Microelectronic integrated circuits can be thought of as the "brains" of a system and allow

microsystems to sense and control the environment. Sensors gather information from the

environment through measuring mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical, optical, and magnetic

phenomena. The electronics then process the information derived from the sensors and through

some decision making capability direct the actuators to respond by moving, positioning,

regulating, and filtering, thereby controlling the environment for some desired purpose. Because

MEMS devices are manufactured using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for

integrated circuits, unprecedented levels of functionality, reliability, and sophistication can be

placed on a small silicon chip at a relatively low cost.

The deep insight of MEMS is as a new manufacturing technology, a way of making complex

electromechanical systems using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for integrated

circuits, and uniting these electromechanical elements together with electronics.Historically,

sensors and actuators are the most costly and unreliable part of a sensor-actuatorelectronics

system. MEMS technology allows these complex electromechanical systems to be manufactured

using batch fabrication techniques, increasing the reliability of the sensors and actuators to equal

that of integrated circuits. The performance of MEMS devices and systems is expected to be

superior to macroscale components and systems, the price is predicted to be much lower.

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 SMART DUST TECHNOLOGY

Integrated into a single package are :-

1. MEMS sensors

2. MEMS beam steering mirror for active optical transmission

3. MEMS corner cube retroreflector for passive optical transmission

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4. An optical receiver

5. Signal processing and control circuitory

6. A power source based on thick film batteries and solar cells

This remarkable package has the ability to sense and communicate and is self powered. A major

challenge is to incorporate all these functions while maintaining very low power consumption.

• Sensors collect information from the environment such as light , sound, temperature ,chemical

composition etc

• Smart dust employs 2 types of transmission schemes:-passive transmission using corner cube

retroreflector to transmit to base stations and active transmission using a laser diode & steerable

mirrors for mote to mote communication.

• The photo diode allows optical data reception

• Signal processing & control circuitory consists of analog I/O ,DSPs to control &process the

incoming data

• The power system consists of a thick film battery,a solar cell with a charge integrating

capacitor for a period of darkness.

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 OPERATION OF THE MOTE

The Smart Dust mote is run by a microcontroller that not only determines the tasks performed by

the mote, but controls power to the various components of the system to conserve energy.

Periodically the microcontroller gets a reading from one of the sensors, which measure one of a

number of physical or chemical stimuli such as temperature, ambient light, vibration,

acceleration, or air pressure, processes the data, and stores it in memory. It also occasionally

turns on the optical receiver to see if anyone is trying to communicate with it. This

communication may include new programs or messages from other motes. In response to a

message or upon its own initiative the microcontroller will use the corner cube retroreflector or

laser to transmit sensor data or a message to a base station or another mote. The primary

constraint in the design of the Smart Dust motes is volume, which in turn puts a severe constraint

on energy since we do not have much room for batteries or large solar cells. Thus, the motes

must operate efficiently and conserve energy whenever possible. Most of the time, the majority

of the mote is powered off with only a clock and a few timers running. When a timer expires, it

powers up a part of the mote to carry out a job, then powers off. A few of the timers control the

sensors that measure one of a number of physical or chemical stimuli such as temperature,

ambient light, vibration, acceleration, or air pressure. When one of these timers expires, it

powers up the corresponding sensor, takes a sample, and converts it to a digital word. If the data

is interesting, it may either be stored directly in the SRAM or the microcontroller is powered up

to perform more complex operations with it. When this task is complete, everything is again

powered down and the timer begins counting again.

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Another timer controls the receiver. When that timer expires, the receiver powers up and looks

for an incoming packet. If it doesn't see one after a certain length of time, it is powered down

again. The mote can receive several types of packets, including ones that are new program code

that is stored in the program memory. This allows the user to change the behavior of the mote

remotely. Packets may also include messages from the base station or other motes. When one of

these is received, the microcontroller is powered up and used to interpret the contents of the

message. The message may tell the mote to do something in particular, or it may be a message

that is just being passed from one mote to another on its way to a particular destination. In

response to a message or to another timer expiring, the microcontroller will assemble a packet

containing sensor data or a message and transmit it using either the corner cube retroreflector or

the laser diode, depending on which it has. The laser diode contains the onboard laser which

sends signals to the base station by blinking on and off. The corner cube retroreflector , transmits

information just by moving a mirror and thus changing the reflection of a laser beam from the

base station. This technique is substantially more energy efficient than actually generating some

radiation. With the laser diode and a set of beam scanning mirrors, we can transmit data in any

direction desired, allowing the mote to communicate with other Smart Dust motes.

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 COMMUNICATING WITH A SMART DUST

COMMUNICATING FROM A GRAIN OF SAND

Smart Dust’s full potential can only be attained when the sensor nodes communicate with one

another or with a central base station. Wireless communication facilitates simultaneous data

collection from thousands of sensors. There are several options for communicating to and from a

cubicmillimeter computer.

Radio-frequency and optical communications each have their strengths and weaknesses. Radio-

frequency communication is well understood, but currently requires minimum power levels in

the multiple milliwatt range due to analog mixers, filters, and oscillators. If whisker-thin

antennas of centimeter length can be accepted as a part of a dust mote, then reasonably efficient

antennas can be made for radio-frequency communication. While the smallest complete radios

are still on the order of a few hundred cubic millimeters, there is active work in the industry to

produce cubic-millmeter radios.

Moreover RF techniques cannot be used because of the following disadvantages :-

1. Dust motes offer very limited space for antennas, thereby demanding extremely short

wavelength (high frequency transmission). Communication in this regime is not currently

compatible with low power operation of the smart dust.

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2. Furthermore radio transceivers are relatively complex circuits making it difficult to reduce

their power consumption to required microwatt levels.

3. They require modulation, band pass filtering and demodulation circuitory.

So an attractive alternative is to employ free space optical transmission. Studies have shown that

when a line of sight path is available , well defined free space optical links require significantly

lower energy per bit than their RF counterpaths.

There are several reasons for power advantage of optical links.

1. Optical transceivers require only simple baseband analog and digital circuitory .

2. No modulators,active band pass filters or demodulators are needed.

3. The short wavelength of visible or near infra red light (of the order of 1 micron) makes it

possible for a millimeter scale device to emit a narrow beam (ie, high antenna gain can be

achieved).

As another consequence of this short wavelength , a Base Station Transceiver (BTS) equipped

with a compact imaging receiver can decode the simultaneous transmissions from a large number

of dust motes from different locations within the receiver field of view , which is a form of space

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division multiplexing. Successful decoding of these simultaneous transmissions requires that

dust motes not block one another’s line of sight to the BTS.

Such blockage is unlikely in view of dust mote’s small size. Semiconductor lasers and diode

receivers are intrinsically small, and the corresponding transmission and detection circuitry for

on/off keyed optical communication is more amenable to low-power operation than most radio

schema. Perhaps most important, optical power can be collimated in tight beams even from small

apertures. Diffraction enforces a fundamental limit on the divergence of a beam, whether it

comes from an antenna or a lens. Laser pointers are cheap examples of milliradian collimation

from a millimeter aperture. To get similar collimation for a 1-GHz radio-frequency signal would

require an antenna 100 meters across, due to the difference in wavelength of the two

transmissions. As a result, optical transmitters of millimeter size can get antenna gains of one

million or more, while similarly sized radio-frequency antennas are doomed by physics to be

mostly isotropic.

Collimated optical communication has two major drawbacks. Line of sight is required for all but

the shortest distances, and narrow beams imply the need for accurate pointing. Of these, the

pointing accuracy can be solved by MEMS technology and clever algorithms, but an optical

transmitter under a leaf or in a shirt pocket is of little use to anyone. We have chosen to explore

optical communication in some depth due to the potential for extreme low-power

communication.

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 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

We have explored two approaches to optical communications:

Passive reflective systems and active-steered laser systems. In a passive communication system,

the dust mote does not require an onboard light source. Instead, a special configuration of

mirrors can either reflect or not reflect light to a remote source.

Passive reflective systems

The passive reflective communication is obtained by a special device called CCR (Corner cube

retro reflector) consists of three mutually orthogonal mirrors. Light enters the CCR, bounces off

each of the three mirrors, and is reflected back parallel to the direction it entered. In the MEMS

version, the device has one mirror mounted on a spring at an angle slightly askew from

perpendicularity to the other mirrors.

In this position, because the light entering the CCR does not return along the same entry path,

little light returns to the source—a digital 0. Applying voltage between this mirror and an

electrode beneath it causes the mirror to shift to a position perpendicular to other mirrors, thus

causing the light entering the CCR to return to its source—a digital 1. The mirror’s low mass

allows the CCR to switch between these two states up to a thousand times per second, using less

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than a nanojoule per 0→1 transition. A 1I0 transition, on the other hand, is practically free

because dumping the charge stored on the electrode to the ground requires almost no energy. Our

latest Smart Dust device is a 63-mm3 autonomous bidirectional communication mote that

receives an optical signal, generates a pseudorandom sequence based on this signal to emulate

sensor data, and then optically transmits the result. The system contains a micromachined

corner-cube reflector, a 0.078- mm3 CMOS chip that draws 17 microwatts, and a hearing aid

battery. In addition to a battery based operation, we have also powered the device using a 2-

mm2 solar cell. This mote demonstrates Smart Dust’s essential concepts, such as optical data

transmission, data processing, energy management, miniaturization, and system integration.

A passive communication system suffers several limitations. Unable to communicate with each

other, motes rely on a central station equipped with a light source to send and receive data from

other motes. If a given mote does have a clear line of sight to the central station, that mote will

be isolated from the network. Also, because the CCR reflects only a small fraction of the light

emitted from the base station, this system’s range cannot easily extend beyond 1 kilometer. To

circumvent these limitations, dust motes must be active and have their own onboard light source.

Active-steered laser systems

For mote-to-mote communication, an active-steered laser communication system uses an

onboard light source to send a tightly collimated light beam toward an intended receiver. Steered

laser communication has the advantage of high power density; for example, a 1- milliwatt laser

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radiating into 1 milliradian (3.4 arcseconds) has a density of approximately 318 kilowatts per

steradian (there are 4 π steradians in a sphere), as opposed to a 100-watt lightbulb that radiates 8

watts per steradian isotropically. A Smart Dust mote’s emitted beam would have a divergence of

approximately 1 milliradian, permitting communication over enormous distances using

milliwatts of power. Each mote must carefully weigh the needs to sense, compute, communicate,

and evaluate its energy reserve status before allocating precious nanojoules of energy to turn on

its transmitter or receiver. Because these motes spend most of their time sleeping, with their

receivers turned off, scheduling a common awake time across the network is difficult. If motes

don’t wake up in a synchronized manner, a highly dynamic network topology and large packet

latency result. Using burstmode communication, in which the laser operates at up to several tens

of megabits per second for a few milliseconds, provides the most energy-efficient way to

schedule this network. This procedure minimizes the mote’s duty cycle and better utilizes its

energy reserves. The steered agile laser transmitter consists of a semiconductor diode laser

coupled with a collimating lens and MEMS beam-steering optics based on a two degree-of-

freedom silicon micromirror. This system integrates all optical components into an active 8-mm3

volume as the figure shows

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CORNER CUBE RETROREFLECTOR

These MEMS structure makes it possible for dust motes to use passive optical transmission

techniques ie, to transmit modulated optical signals without supplying any optical power. It

comprises of three mutually perpendicular mirrors of gold-coated polysilicon. The CCR has the

property that any incident ray of light is reflected back to the source (provided that it is incident

within a certain range of angles centered about the cube’s body diagonal).If one of the mirrors is

misaligned , this retroreflection property is spoiled. The microfabricated CCR contains an

electrostatic actuator that can deflect one of the mirrors at kilohertz rate. It has been

demonstrated that a CCR illuminated by an external light source can transmit back a modulated

signal at kilobits per second. Since the dust mote itself does not emit light , passive transmitter

consumes little power. Using a microfabricated CCR, data transmission at a bit rate upto 1

kilobit per second and upto a range of 150 mts ,using a 5 milliwattt illuminating laser is possible.

It should be emphasized that CCR based passive optical links require an uninterrupted line of

sight. The CCR based transmitter is highly directional. A CCR can transmit to the BTS only

when the CCR body diagonal happens to point directly towards the BTS, within a few tens of

degrees. A passive transmitter can be made more omnidirectional by employing several CCRs

,oriented in different directions , at the expense of increased dust mote size.

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The figure illustrates free space optical network utilizing the CCR based passive uplink. The

BTS contains a laser whose beam illuminates an area containing dust motes. This beam can be

modulated with downlink data including commands to wake up and query the dust motes. When

the illuminating beam is not modulated , the dust motes can use their CCRs to transmit uplink

data back to the base station. A high frame rate CCD video camera at the BTS sees the CCR

signals as lights blinking on and off. It decodes these blinking images to yield the uplink data.

Analysis show that this uplink scheme achieves several kilobits per second over hundreds of

metres in full sunlight. At night ,in clear ,still air ,the range should extend to several kilometres.

Because the camera uses an imaging process to separate the simultaneous transmissions from

dust motes at different locations, we say it uses ‘space division multiplexing’. The ability for a

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video camera to resolve these transmissions is the consequence of the short wavelength of visible

or near infra red light. This does not require any coordination among the dust motes.

ACTIVE OPTICAL TRANSMITTERS

When the application requires dust motes to use active optical transmitters , MEMS technology

can be used to assemble a semiconductor laser, a collimating lens, and a beam steering micro

mirror. Active transmitters make possible peer to peer communication between dust motes,

provided there exists a line of path of sight between them. Power consumption imposes a

tradeoff between bandwidth and range. The dust motes can communicate over long distances at

low data rates or higher bit rates over shorter distances. The relatively higher power consumption

of semiconductor lasers dictates that these active transmitters be used for short duration burst

mode communication only. Sensor network using active dust mote transmitters will require some

protocol for dust motes to aim their beams towards the receiving parties.

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 LISTENING TO A DUST FIELD

Many Smart Dust applications rely on direct optical communication from an entire field of dust

motes to one or more base stations. These base stations must therefore be able to receive a

volume of simultaneous optical transmissions. Further, communication must be possible

outdoors in bright sunlight which has an intensity of approximately 1 kilowatt per square meter,

although the dust motes each transmit information with a few milliwatts of power. Using a

narrow-band optical filter to eliminate all sunlight except the portion near the light frequency

used for communication can partially solve this second problem, but the ambient optical power

often remains much stronger than the received signal power.

Advantages of imaging receivers

As with the transmitter, the short wavelength of optical transmissions compared with radio

frequency overcomes both challenges. Light from a large field of view field can be focused into

an image, as in our eyes or in a camera. Imaging receivers utilize this to analyze different

portions of the image separately to process simultaneous transmissions from different angles.

This method of distinguishing transmissions based on their originating location is referred to as

space division multiple access (SDMA). In contrast, most radio-frequency antennas receive all

incident radio power in a single signal, which requires using additional tactics, such as frequency

tuning or code division multiple access (CDMA), to separate simultaneous transmissions.

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Imaging receivers also offer the advantage of dramatically decreasing the ratio of ambient optical

power to received signal power.Ideally, the imaging receiver will focus all of the received power

from a single transmission onto a single photodetector. If the receiver has an n In array of

pixels, then the ambient light that each pixel receives is reduced by a factor n2 compared with a

nonimaging receiver.

Video camera.

A video camera is a straightforward implementation of an imaging receiver. If each member in a

colony of Smart Dust motes flashes its own signal at a rate of a few bits per second, then each

transmitter will appear in the video stream at a different location in the image. Using a high-

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speed camera and a dedicated digital signal processor to process the video signal achieves higher

data rates. With modern cameras and DSPs, processing video at about 1,000 frames per second

should be feasible. This would allow communication at a few hundred bits per second, which is

acceptable for many applications. An alternative receiver architecture provides a more elegant

solution at much higher data rates, avoiding the need for computationally intensive video

processing and very high speed cameras. Integrating an imaging receiver onto a single microchip

imposes severe constraints in silicon area and power consumption per pixel. Only recently have

continuing reductions in transistor size allowed for sufficient reductions in circuit area and power

consumption to achieve this level of integration.

CORE FUNCTIONALITY SPECIFICATION

Choose the case of military base monitoring wherein on the order of a thousand Smart Dust

motes are deployed outside a base by a micro air vehicle to monitor vehicle movement. The

motes can be used to determine when vehicles were moving, what type of vehicle it was, and

possibly how fast it was travelling. The motes may contain sensors for vibration, sound, light, IR,

temperature, and magnetization. CCRs will be used for transmission, so communication will

only be between a base station and the motes, not between motes. A typical operation for this

scenario would be to acquire data, store it for a day or two, then upload the data after being

interrogated with a laser. However, to really see what functionality the architecture needed to

provide and how much reconfigurability would be necessary, an exhaustive list of the potential

activities in this scenario was made. The operations that the mote must perform can be broken

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down into two categories: those that provoke an immediate action and those that reconfigure the

mote to affect future behavior.

Proposed Architecture

Looking through the functional specifications for the core, we realized that each operation is

regulated by a timed event; hence a bank of timers forms the basis of the architecture. For

minimum energy, a direct mapping of a particular function into hardware is generally best, but

from the list of specifications it was clear that a certain amount of reconfigurability would be

necessary. Thus, the timers enable setup memories that configure functional blocks into data

paths that provide only the capabilities necessaryfor that event. These paths are data-driven so

that functional blocks are only powered up when their inputs are ready, minimizing standby

power and glitching. A block diagram of this new architecture is shown in the figure

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The next figure details a section of the timer bank and setup memory. The timer is loaded from

the timer value memory, setting its period. When the timer expires, it enables setupmemory 1,

which configures the data path to perform the desired function. When the data path has finished

its operation, setup memory 1 will release its configuration and yeither the timer value can be

loaded into the timer and thecountdown restarted or setup memory 2 can be enabled.

Setup memory 2 will then configure the data path for another operation, thus facilitating multiple

operations per timer event. Additional setup memory can be added for more involved sequences.

Memory holds certain timer-independent configuration bits, such as timer enables. The sensor

registers are used to store previous sensor readings to use in computing data changes. Various

computation blocks can be included in the data path, such as an adder, comparator, and FFT unit.

Multiple timer periods are desirable for several situations. For example, one might want to

sample a sensor at a slow rate until an interesting signal is detected. At that point, the sampling

rate should increase. In addition, the motes might be deployed without anyone coming back to

talk to them for a day, so it would be desirable to be able to set the receiver wake-up timer to not

wake-up for 24 hours, but then it should decrease the period dramatically to 10’s of seconds in

case one doesn’t make it back to talk to the mote at exactly the right time. The proposed

architecture facilitates this by providing multiple timer values that can be loaded into the timer

depending on the results of the data path computation.

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Another feature of this architecture is energy-driven operation modes. An energy-monitoring unit

selects between multiple banks of setup memory and timer values depending on the current level

of the energy stores. Each bank can have different timer periods and algorithms to control energy

expenditure. Two types of packets can be sent to the mote, corresponding to the two types of

operations. Immediate mode operations use the packet body to configure the data path right

away. Reconfiguration operations load the packet body into the setup memory for future

configuration.

The following figure shows the functional blocks included in the reconfigurable data path.

For the communications back end, there is a data recovery block, timing recovery block, FIR

filter, packet encoder that does bits stuffing and adds the flag byte, packet decoder that does bit

unstuffing, CRC block, and a FIFO. Incoming packets are stored in the FIFO until the CRC can

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be verified, at which point the packet body will be used as described above. The global memory

holds certain timer-independent configuration bits, such as timer enables. The sensor registers

are used to store previous sensor readings to use in computing data changes. Various

computation blocks can be included in the data path, such as an adder, comparator, and FFT unit.

All of the functional units in the data path are data driven. The setup memory only powers up

and enables the first set of units that are needed, such as the sensor and ADC. Once these units

have done their job, they assert a done signal that is routed, based on the configuration memory,

to the next unit, such as the adder, and powers it up and enables it. Likewise, when this unit has

finished its job, it will power up and enable the next device in the chain. The last unit in the path

will cause the timer to reload its value and cause the setup memory to stop configuring the data

path. The advantages of this data driven technique include minimizing the standby power by

keeping components powered down until exactly when they are needed, and ensuring that the

inputs are stable before the next device is powered up, which minimizes glitches. It is significant

to note that since this architecture does not use shared busses as in traditional microcontrollers,

the functional components can be configured for certain parallel operations. For example, a

sensor reading could be both stored in SRAM and transmitted with the CCR, although this is not

necessarily a desirable capability.

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 PERFORMING A TASK

Figure 5 delineates the operation of the architecture by showing the configuration for one of the

most common tasks, acquiring sensor data, checking if it has changed more than a threshold

value, then storing the result to memory. One potential hazard of this architecture is that the done

signals can glitch as the blocks are powered up, which would provide a false trigger to the next

stage. A second issue is that despite the fact that the blocks are powered down, the internal nodes

do not discharge immediately. An advantage of this is that less charge will be needed when the

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block is powered up again. However, this stored charge will also allow the block to continue to

drive its outputs despite being powered down, so the outputs will generally need tri-state buffers.

These hazards will require some extra work at the circuit level to make this architecture work.

Hspice simulations were used simulations were used to determine the power and energy

consumptions of some of the blocks to study the feasibility of the proposed architecture. The

preliminary results of Hspice simulations show that it is possible to achieve atleast two orders of

magnitude lower energy consumption, with this proposed architecture.

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 MAJOR CHALLENGES

1. To incorporate all these functions while maintaining a low power consumption

2. Maximising operating life given the limited volume of energy storage

3. The functionality can be achieved only if the total power consumption is limited to microwatt

levels.

4. An unbroken line of sight of path should be available for free space optical links.

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 APPLICATIONS

1. Civil and military applications where chemical & biological agents in a battle field are

detected.

2. Virtual keyboard Glue a dust mote on each of your fingernails. Accelerometers will sense the

orientation and motion of each of your fingertips, and talk to the computer in your watch.

Combined with a MEMS augmented-reality heads-up display, your entire computer I/O would

be invisible to the people around you.

3. Inventory Control Smart office spaces The Center for the Built Environment has fabulous

plans for the office of the future in which environmental conditions are tailored to the desires of

every individual. Maybe soon we'll all be wearing temperature, humidity, and environmental

comfort sensors sewn into our clothes, continuously talking to our workspaces which will deliver

conditions tailored to our needs.

4. Individual dust motes can be attached to the objects one wishes to monitor or a large no: of

dust motes may be dispersed in the environment randomly.

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5. Dust motes may be used in places where wired sensors are unusable or may lead to errors.

Eg:- Instrumentation of semiconductor processing chambers,wind tennels, rotating machinery

etc.

6. May be used in biological research eg:- to monitor movements & internal processes of insects.

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 HOW FAR THEY HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED

1. The optical receiver for the smart dust project is being developed. The receiver senses

incoming laser transmissions at up to 1Mbit/s, for a power consumption of 12NW. Although this

is too high for continuous use in smart dust, it is a reasonable figure for the download of small

amounts of data such as a 1Kbit program.

2. For data transmission, the team is using corner cube retro-reflectors (CCRs) built using

MEMS techniques. CCRs are produced by placing three mirrors at right angles to each other to

form the corner of a box that has been silvered inside.

The key property of a CCR is that light entering it is reflected back along the path it entered on.

For the smart dust system, the CCR is being built on a MEMS process with the two vertical sides

being assembled by hand. When a light is shone into the CCR, it reflects back to the sending

position. By modulating the position of one of the mirrors, the reflected beam can be modulated,

producing a low-energy passive transmission.

3. The analog-digital convertor (ADC) the 8bit ADC, has so far demonstrated with an input

range of 1V, equal to the power supply, and a 70kHz sampling rate. The converter draws 1.8NW

when sampling at that rate, or 27pJ for an 8bit sample.

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4. The latest smart dust mote, with a volume of just 16cu mm, has been tested. It takes samples

from a photo-detector, transmits their values with the CCR and runs off solar cells. So smart dust

is on the way.

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 SUMMARY

Smart dust is made up of thousands of sand-grain-sized sensors that can measure ambient light

and temperature. The sensors -- each one is called a "mote" -- have wireless communications

devices attached to them, and if you put a bunch of them near each other, they'll network

themselves automatically.

These sensors, which would cost pennies each if mass-produced, could be plastered all over

office buildings and homes. Each room in an office building might have a hundred or even a

thousand light- and temperature-sensing motes, all of which would tie into a central computer

that regulates energy usage in the building.

Taken together, the motes would constitute a huge sensor network of smart dust, a network that

would give engineers insight into how energy is used and how it can be conserved. In a dust-

enabled building, computers would turn off lights and climate control in empty rooms. During

peak energy usage times, air conditioners that cool servers -- which drain a lot of the tech world's

power -- would be automatically shut off, and then turned on again if the servers get too hot.

Thus it can very lead to world’s energy conservation solutions.

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 REFERENCES

1. P.B.Chu , KSJ Pister – “optical communication using micro corner cube reflectors” 10th IEEE

Int’l Workshop on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

2. J . Kahn , R.H.Katz, KSJ Pister – “Mobile Networking for Smart Dust”

3. www.eecs.berkerly.edu

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