System-on-Chip Lab (SoCL)

Khalifa University Researchers Publish Book on Next Generation Power Management Integrated Circuits for Energy Efficient Wearable Devices

March 3, 2020

A team of researchers from Khalifa University’s System-on-Chip Lab (SoCL) have contributed to the advancement of energy-efficient wearable electronic devices with extended battery life, and documented their contributions in a new book on power management integrated circuits for wearables.

The co-authors include KU’s Dr. Dima Kilani, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Baker Mohammad, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and SoCL Director, and Dr. Hani Saleh, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The book, titled “Power Management for Wearable Electronic Devices,” is published by Springer, one of the leading international science and technology publishers.

As Khalifa University celebrates the UAE’s Month of Reading, the recent book publication underscores the significant role KU researchers play in expanding scientific literacy and disseminating cutting-edge knowledge to readers in the UAE and around the world.

The book, which is composed of six chapters, presents a comprehensive overview of the research conducted by SoCL researchers in the field of power management integrated circuits (PMICs), which are used to power small, battery-operated electronic devices within a single chip.

Forecasts suggest that by 2030 there will be around 50 billion Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices in use around the world offering new ways to improve our productivity, health, and lifestyle. Hence, the book’s publication is very timely as it provides important insights into optimal power management designs for researchers and industry leaders working in the area of connected, low-power wearable devices.

“We are entering an era of IoT and artificial intelligence (AI), which is giving rise to great opportunities for electronic devices with low power consumption and energy efficiency,” Dr. Mohammad shared.

PMICs provide critical power management functions in wearable devices, especially in ultra-thin sensors used in hard-to-reach places, like medical implantable and smart structures. These ultra-thin sensors require a new generation of IPICs that can facilitate charging and keep up with the highest-performing wearable requirements.

The book presents different PMIC design architectures that will reduce power consumption and utilize energy harvesting sources to achieve efficient power management in ultra-thin wearables and near perpetual operation.

“The circuits presented in our book support voltage scaling to reduce the overall average power consumption of a wearable device, resulting in longer device operating time. The discussion includes many designs, control techniques and approaches to distribute efficiently the power among different blocks in the device,” said Dr. Kilani.

The book gathers all the ideas the team has previously published in scientific journals, along with new insights, to be a reference for both academic and industry.

The book’s chapters present the researchers’ experimental results of energy harvesting-based power management units (PMUs) using different combinations of power converters and voltage regulators.

“The results give a good guide for designers to select the appropriate option based on the device requirements,” Dr. Kilani explained.

The designed PMICs underwent verification and silicon validation, which means that the circuits were tested and successfully demonstrated on silicon-based integrated circuit prototypes manufactured at GLOBALFOUNDRIES (owned by Mubadala), proving that the chips work as designed.

Erica Solomon
Senior Editor
3 March 2020