Design of Autonomous Micro-Solar Powered Energy Harvesting

System for Self-Powered Batteries-less Wireless Sensor Mote

l l 3
Airul AzhaAbd. Rahman* , Nor'azah Abdul Rashid \ Aiman Sajidah Abd. Aziz , Dr. Gunawan Witjakson0

1 MIMOS, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

* Corresponding Author, airul@mimos.my, +603 8996 5000

Abstract
Harvesting electrical power from environment energy sources is an attractive and increasingly feasible option for
several batteries-less micro-scale electronic systems such as biomedical implants and wireless sensor nodes that
need to operate autonomously for long periods of time without needed batteries replacement and maintenance.
However, designing highly efficient micro-scale energy harvesting systems requires an in-depth understanding of
various design considerations and tradeoffs. This paper reports and describes method of power management cir­
cuit design and implementation for micro-scale solar energy harvesting that based-on step-up voltage conversion,
DC-DC boost converter with maximum peak power controllable and minimum 300mV start-up input voltage. A
micro-solar powered energy harvesting and power management system introduced for targeting to autonomous
wireless sensor node (AWSN) application for monitoring purpose such as remote patient monitoring, structural
monitoring and precision agriculture monitoring. In order to enhance efficiency of supply power to a microcon­
troller unit (MCU) and a radio frequency (RF) module in a battery-less sensor network device without battery
power, our current prototype system utilizes combination of a super-capacitor with miniaturize flexible photovol­
taic cells. Based on the consideration of practical application, we designed a communication mechanism for the
battery-less wireless sensor mote network system and discuss the various challenges and considerations involved
from a system-design perspective.

represents an attractive approach to alleviate the ener­

1 Introduction
gy supply challenge in these systems and has the po­
Energy harvesting (power harvesting or energy scav­ tential to result in self-powered, perpetual system op­
enging) is the process by which energy is derived from eration.
external (alternate) energy sources (such as solar pow­
Utilizing real-world information obtained from sensor
er, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and
networks is expected to enrich future ubiquitous com­
kinetic energy), captured and stored into usable elec­
puting applications. These devices basically have a
trical energy [1]. Frequently, the term "Energy Har­
single on-chip microprocessor unit and radio frequen­
vesting" is applied when speaking about small, wire­
cy module for data transmission process. A battery is
less autonomous devices, like those used in wearable
usually used for driving these devices. In many re­
electronics and wireless sensor networks. Generating
searches on sensor network systems, these devices are
electricity for running large powered appliances is im­
considered as disposable devices, and are assumed to
practical. Energy harvesters currently do not produce
be scattered in various environments. Based on these
sufficient energy to perform mechanical work, but in­
assumptions, various battery-aware communication
stead provide very small amount of power for power­
protocols have been proposed. However we believe
ing and enabling very low-power micro-scale elec­
that such battery-powered and disposable devices are
tronics system operation (such as wireless sensor net­
not acceptable for practical sensor network applica­
work system). Energy harvesting is an alternate energy
tions. In many applications, there are few applications
source usually for small and portable electronics de­
utilizing disposable sensor devices. Usually, disposa­
vices and ideal for substituting for batteries that are
ble devices are only acceptable for military or disaster
impractical, costly, or dangerous to replace. Despite
applications. For example, if we deploy sensor net­
the stringent constraints on size and hence battery ca­
work such as for monitoring temperature in a plastic
pacity, the low-energy electronics system are often re­
green house, we may not leave lots of dead sensor
quired to operate for several months to years without
network devices in the environment because such de­
the need for battery replacement, because frequent
vices and dead battery become obstacles for farm
battery replacement may be either infeasible or pro­
workers and are harmful for products yield. This
hibitively expensive. Environmental energy harvesting
means that we have to replace or recharge huge
amount of dead batteries if we apply battery-powered Temperatu�
Volta�e Booste r Sensor
wireless sensor network systems for various consumer iIIr.d Po'tlE!r Se/lSQr BOiIrd «-
MTS400CA
applications. Needless to say, doing such maintenance t..'la na�eme. n t
S )'ste m {l> M51 �ity
�·· --··-Tr··-· ---· ·-t· · _·_·_·1
:sensor
is unrealistic. Currently, there have been developed
lots of technologies for obtaining electric power with­
out batteries [2]-[4]. For example, we can obtain elec­
,
tric power from light, waste heat, and vibration
through various conversion energy harvester devices e El1Iergy
PoW@{ on Reset
(PoRI IE- MPU �
R.adio nilillsceWer
Module:
(such as photovoltaic cell, thermoelectric generator Storage
M.cAlMole
and piezoelectric). If we can utilize such energy
sources for driving sensor network devices, we need
Figure 1: An Autonomous Micro-Solar Powered
not care about battery problem in wireless sensor net­
Wireless Sensing Mote Architecture Blocks
work system. From this point of view, we develop a
prototype of battery-less sensor mote system design
with multiple energy harvesters for wireless sensor
networks (WSN) precision aquaculture monitoring
application. The system consists of energy collector
device, which employs controllable power converter
and supercapacitor equipped with flexi-solar cells
andlnor thermoelectric generator as energy sources to
the system. In this paper, we present workable system
that has been prototyped with the solar cell as for sys­
tem functionality testing.

The system is mainly design as a test-bench for evalu­

ating battery-less sensor network system. And by
changing intensity pattern of external light source, the
combination of supercapacitor and connection of solar
cells enable emulation of various types of energy
source (e.g. continuous power source, intermittent
power source, etc.). The difference between the Au­
tonomous Hybrid Wireless Sensor Mote System de­
vice and others conventional wireless sensor mote de­
vice is the rechargeable technique power energy
Figure 2: On-Board Design of Autonomous Micro­
Solar Wireless Sensing Mote
The MPU can measure the charge level of the super­
capacitor [3] through an internal AID conversion cir­
cuit. If the charge level is less than 2.95V, a reset IC in
the MICAz will shuts down the microcontroller (i.e.
the MPU must enter sleep mode before charge level

source for being powered a wireless mote and sensor becomes less than 3.05V). If the charge level becomes

nodes. Hence, communication mechanism of the sys­ 3.25V, the reset IC restarts the MPU. When the device

tem must be design by considering not only power is continuously sending data via RF module, the max­

consumption but also power charging. In following imum power consumption is around 22mA since the

section, we describe the system hardware design and

wireless communication mechanism.
2 Autonomous Micro-Solar Wire­
less Sensing Mote
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of micro-solar
powered sensing mote architecture [2]. The on-board
system consists of a power converter subsystem, a mi­
cro-processor unit (MPU) with built-in 2.4GHz ISM
band radio transceiver module (MICAz Mote) and a
temperature and humidity sensor board (MTS400CA).
Two units of a 2.5V, 50F low ESR carbon aero-gel su­
percapacitor connected in series are implemented on
the power circuit board. Four modules of a 5.8 cm x
5.6 cm flexible amorphous solar cell (SANYO) con­
nected in parallel connect to the power circuit board
and the power circuit board can be attached to the
wireless sensor mote system as shown in Figure 2.
RF module consumes over 17mA in the highest trans­
mission power mode. On the other hand, the solar cell
can provide around 34.5mA in fme weather (sunny
day) with high intensity of sunlight. Therefore, in out­
door environment, the system continuously works at
highest performance. However, in indoor environ­
ment, it is impossible to drive the device with the pro­
posed solar cells. However, if we can attach the solar
cells close to light source, the system can work inter­
mittently.
3 Communication Mechanism
Typically, energy sustainable and power consuming in
wireless embedded system could be optimized by a
communication mechanism in the mote system based­
on power requirement during data transmission and
normal operation from practical consumer application.
At the start of designing such communication mecha­ circuit with the solar cell MPP voltage, by connecting
nism, target application of the system should be identi­ RMPP =
360KQ between the MPPC pin and GND by
fy and decide during design and development process using equation (1). In our design application, the V MPP
[7]. In our opinion, the most suitable application of (i.e. 3.6V) is the maximum voltage determined by the
the system is environmental monitoring application. solar cell I-V curve for maximum power extraction
Usually such application does not require high data from the solar cell. The power converter system out­
rate and is not so sensitive to delay in normal opera­ puts short circuit current Isc when load impedance is
tion. For example the system reports temperature and zero. This is the available current when starting to
humidity in a plastic green house in a certain interval. charge the supercapacitor. This current will decrease
In this case lack of several data packets is not so im­ when the supercapacitor voltage slowly increases. The
portant problem. In order to support such kind of ap­ current becomes zero when the supercapacitor fully
plication, we use normal mode operation communica­
charged and reached to the open circuit voltage (i.e.
tion mechanism which is data packets will send from
Voc ) . The maximum output voltage range (i.e. VOUT)
mote during active mode within the wireless sensor
of the power converter can be configured by resistors
network using IEEE 802.15.4 protocol with certain
divider connected parallel at the VoUT pin using the
interval time through serial gateway to local host
equation (2).
(server) computer. Figure 3 illustrates ZigBee data
transmission and communication topography between
local host computer and sensing mote in wireless sen­ RMPP VMPpllOIlA
=
(I)
sor networks environment. After the host computer VOUT 1.004V* ((R/R2) + 1)
=
(2)
completely received the data for further analysis the
mote is immediately entering sleep mode and hiber­ RMPp Voc Isc Remarks

nate to safe and minimize power consumption and (open circuit) (short circuit)
d 5.40mA
waiting 2n active mode trigger signal from MPU. 1501( 5.193V
240K 5.193V 8.79mA
Sensor _HUmicity 3001( 5.193V 12.13mA
So"""
In emce
Readout Circuit _Temperature 360K 5.t95V 13.ttmA Max. charge
So"""
(SIRC) current
4251( 5.194V 12.54mA

local Ho st
Si;nal
Base Mote
Conditionine
and AOC
r Mote
k .. Ga e\'� I-> Computer
Table 1: Maximum short circuit current at MPP
Yktless COfnmI.nOtIOn voltage of the solar cell
ISM a.nd 2.4SGH2 SOHSA �8te1

Table 2 shows relation between numbers of solar cell

connected in parallel at maximum power operating
Figure 3: Design Flow Model for Wireless Sensor
Network Topography point to the power converter outputs current. By con­
nected in parallel the four units of solar cell, the open

4 Result & Measurement circuit current produced at the output of power con­
verter is 43.45mA. This is considered enough current
The output power of solar cell not only varies with the
for the power converter to charge and transferring the
intensity of the environmental source, but also with
open circuit voltage (i.e. 5.18V) to store in the 25F,
the load across its terminals. When the loading imped­
5V supercapacitor in 30 minutes during sunny day
ance is infinite (open circuit) or zero (short circuit), no
with high intensity of sunlight. From this measurement
output power is obtained since either the output cur­
result, the amount power out of the power converter is
rent or the output voltage is zero. At optimal loading
determined by the following factors: 1. solar radiation,
point that is best matched with the inherent impedance
2. solar cell characteristic, 3. solar cell maximum
of the used solar cell. This point on the solar cell I-V
power operating point (V max, I )
max . Maximum power
curve is the MPP. When the optimal loading is applied
extraction of micro-solar powered power converter
to the solar cell, the solar cell operates at its maximum
can be achieved from this point of views when the
power point (MPP). Note that the MPP changes sig­
nificantly as the light (sunlight) intensity changes.
product of these two parameters (i.e. I and V) gives
the maximum power. For further achievement, output
Table 1 describes maximum output current produced current of the power converter will be increased de­
by the power converter system occurred at the maxi­ pends on the numbers of the solar cell connected in
mum power point (MPP) voltage of the solar cell. parallel in the system.
This can be done by configuring the power converter
 [5] J. Polastre, R. Szewczyk, and D. Culler. Telos:

DC-DC Power Converter System Output Enabling ultra-low power wireless research.
IEEE SPOTS, Apr. 2005.
No: of Cell Open Circuit Short Circuit [6] V. Raghunathan, A. Kansal, J. Hsu, J. Friedman,
Connected in Voltage, Voc (V) Current, Isc (rnA)
and M. Srivastava. Design considerations for so­
Parallel
lar energy harvesting wireless embedded sys­
1 5.188 17.85
tems. IEEE SPOTS, 2005.
2 5.186 28.78 [7] J. F. Randall. Designing Indoor Solar Products,
Photovoltaic Technologies for AES. John Wiley
3 5.186 39.68
& Sons, Ltd, 2005.
[8] S. Roundy, B. P. Otis, Y.-H. Chee, J. M. Rabaey,
4 5.189 43.45
and P. Wright. A 1.9ghz rf transmit beacon using
environmentally scavenged energy. IEEE Int.
Table 2: Relation between output charge current Symposium on Low Power Elec. and Devices,
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[9] P. Sikka, P. Corke, P. Valencia, C. Crossman, D.
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We introduce and presenting autonomous hybrid ener­ SPOTS, 2006.
gy sources for battery-less sensor network system in­
cluding hardware design and communication mecha­
nism. Experimental results demonstrated the system
can replenish the energy itself by extracting solar en­
ergy. The 25F, 5V supercapacitor can fully charge
within 30 minutes in sunny day. The available energy
is employed to transmit sensor data by means of a
wireless communication module through the MICAz
mote to local host computer and power path manage­
ment and reconfiguration from energy harvesters for
powering internal loads. The system can be used for
application based on monitoring is requesting a low
power and a highly autonomous sensor node. Since
the system implementing and communication mecha­
nism are still in prototype level, we have to measure
performance of the mechanism and improve the power
converter design through various kinds of experiments
and measurement.

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