In most home automation scenarios electronic devices like shutters or entertainment products (Hifi, TV) are constantly in a standby mode that consumes a considerable amount of energy. The standby mode is necessary to react to commands triggered by the user. To reduce the standby current we present a node that can be attached to the plug of electronic devices and that can turn them on and off. The node contains a wake-up receiver module that reacts to an acoustic 18 kHz tone and that switches the node from active to passive mode. In active mode the node can turn on or off the respectively power source for the device under control. The acoustic wake-up signal can be sent out by any kind of speaker which enables a commercial smartphone to act as an universal acoustic remote control without line-of-sight requirement. Our wake-up receiver consists of an 18 kHz LF receiver and an MEMs-Microphone. A wake-up range of 7.5 m using a smartphone as a sender was achieved. The overall power consumption was measured to 56 μW in standby mode. Using a 230 mAh coin cell as the energy supply a theoretical lifetime of 500 days is possible.
Automated home applications are to ease the use of technology and devices around the house. Most of the electronic devices, like shutters or entertainment products (Hifi, TV and even WiFi), are constantly in a standby mode, where they consume a considerable amount of energy. The standby mode is necessary to react to commands triggered by the user, but the time the device spends in a standby mode is considered long. In our work, we present a receiver that is attached to home appliances that allows the devices to be activated while they are completely turned off in order to reduce the energy consumed in the standby mode. The receiver contains a low power wake-up module that reacts to an addressable acoustic 20-kHz sound signal that controls home devices that are connected to it. The acoustic wake-up signal can be sent by any kind of speaker that is available in commercial smartphones. The smartphones will operate as transmitters to the signals. Our wake-up receiver consists of two parts: a low power passive circuit connected to a wake-up chip microcontroller and an active micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) microphone that receives the acoustic signal. A duty cycle is required to reduce the power consumption of the receiver, because the signal reception occurs when the microphone is active. The current consumption was measured to be 15 µA in sleep mode and 140 µA in active mode. An average wake-up range of 10 m using a smartphone as a sender was achieved.
Abstract-This work proposes the use of inductive links in order to wirelessly power an autonomous sensor in a vehicle application. The selected application is intended for occupancy and belt detection in removable vehicle seats, where wiring the seat detectors from the vehicle chassis is unpractical. The autonomous sensor includes the seat detectors and a wireless transceiver to transfer the data about the state of the detectors. In order to compensate the loose coupling between the coupled coils, resonant tanks were used. To drive the transmitting resonant network, a commercial class D amplifier was used. Working frequency was restricted to 150 kHz. Commercial magnetic-core coils were selected as they provide high coil values and quality factors in a small-size factor, which is a requirement for the intended application. At the receiving network, a rectifier and a voltage regulator were used to provide a DC voltage supply to the autonomous sensor. Three kinds of voltage regulators were compared from the point of view of the power efficiency. Both a theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented for different combinations of coils and working frequencies. Theoretical analysis shows that the operating points for the linear shunt regulator always lead to higher power efficiencies compared to other alternatives such as linear series and switching buck regulators. Experimental tests were carried out using a mechanical setup to fix the coil-to-coil distances. Experimental results agree with the theoretical analysis. Achieved power efficiencies ranged from around 50% to 10% for coil-to-coil distances from one to three times the inner diameter of the coils. Experimental tests also showed that the autonomous sensor was properly powered up to coil-to-coil distances of 2.5 cm, i.e. more than four times the inner diameter of the coils.
Abstract-This work proposes the use of magnetic coupling for powering autonomous sensors in space-constrained applications, such as occupancy and belt detection in removable vehicle seats. The power demand of the autonomous sensor is considered between tens and hundreds of milliwatts. A theoretical analysis first highlights the critical parameters in order to achieve a large powering range and high efficiency. Series-resonant tanks are considered for both the primary and secondary networks. Because the intended application is space-constrained, small coils have to be used. In order to increase their quality factor, commercial ferrite-core coils are used. A class D power amplifier is proposed for the primary network. Experimental results show that a power of tens of milliwatts can be transferred to a 100 Ω load placed at the secondary network up to a distance of 2 cm, near seven times the radius of the coils (3 mm). The addition of a rectifier and a voltage regulator at the secondary network in order to properly power an autonomous sensor (3 V @ 30 mA) limits the powering range to 1 cm. Overall power efficiencies around 45 % and 20 % are achieved respectively at distances of 5 mm and 1 cm.
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