Browsing by Author "Hsieh, Jen-Chien"

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A Self-Powering Wireless Environment Monitoring System Using Soil Energy
(2015-07-01)
Lin, Fu-To
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Kuo, Yu-Chun
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Hsieh, Jen-Chien
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Tsai, Hsi-Yuan
;
Liao, Yu-Te
This paper presents a self-powering wireless environment monitoring system using renewable and cost-efficient soil energy. The D-size (55.8 cm(3)) soil energy cell with carbon and zinc electrodes can produce similar to 60-100 mu W, depending on the water contents and microbial reactions in the soil. The RC circuit model of a soil cell is proposed for understanding the electrical characteristics of the cell. The wireless sensing system, including temperature and air moisture sensors, a custom low-power capacitive sensor readout silicon chip, a microcontroller, and a Bluetooth low-energy transmitter, is demonstrated for long-term environmental monitoring solely by the fabricated D-size soil cell. The capacitive sensor readout chip is fabricated in a 0.18-mu m CMOS process and only consumes 3 mu W. The capacitance readout range is 160-200 pF. The total power consumption of the wireless temperature and air moisture monitoring system is similar to 20 mu W and 1 mW in the sleep mode and the active wireless data communication operations, respectively. The new technology can enable remote field environment monitoring with less labor-intensive work and battery replacement.
Towards a Self-Sustained Moisture and Temperature Monitoring System using Soil Energy
(2013)
Lin, Fu-To
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Hsieh, Jen-Chien
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Wen, Fu-Chun
;
Wang, Wei-Kuan
;
Lee, Huang-Chen
Limited energy source dominates the use of sensor system, especially for outdoor environment monitoring. This paper presents a self-sustained moisture and temperature monitoring system using soil energy. The fabricated 36.5 cm(3) soil cell (Zinc-Carbon electrodes) can provide maximum output power of 70 mu W at a load of 2k Omega. The proposed sensor system includes custom DC-DC converter IC, microcontroller, micro-LCD display and temperature as well as moisture sensors. The system was demonstrated measuring temperature and moisture changes directly using inexpensive and renewable soil energy without external power supply. This technology may enable remote field environment monitoring with less labor-intensive work and battery replacement.