Temperature gradient sensor from pulsed power supply duty cycle in ultra-low-power energy harvesting system

Abstract

Directly interfacing sensors that link sensors to micro-controllers without a signal conditioning circuit or an analogue-to-digital converter on the one side and energy harvesting systems on the other side are two key enabling technologies to create self-powered autonomous low-cost and low-maintenance sensor networks. In this reported work, both technologies are concurrently combined in such a way that the duty cycle of the pulsed power supply provided by the harvesting system itself yields in turn a temperature gradient sensor functionality. Originally conceived to power a low-power satellite beacon in a CubeSat project, it has found application, among other applications, in automatic air conditioning and heating systems aiming smart buildings.