Self-powered devices and methods

• US 8,516,279 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Invent.ly LLC
• Original Assignee: Rambus Inc.
• Inventors: Flood, Timothy P., Hallatt, Clive A., Jessup, Holden D., Meade, Daylyn M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US13/406,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20120246499A1
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• Field of Search: 700/297, 700/291, 700/586, 700/295, 700/286, 709/224, 136/249, 136/253, 713/300, 713/320, 713/303, 713/302
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40039 Details regarding the setting of the power status of a node according to activity on the bus
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

The self-powered device is configured to be powered by energy collected from a surrounding environment. The self-powered device includes an energy collector, and a memory having instructions for selecting one of a plurality of modes of operation. The energy collector is configured to collect energy to power the self-powered device from a surrounding environment in which the self-powered device is located. The plurality of modes of operation include: (i) a low-power mode of operation in which the self-powered device consumes less than a pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the self-powered device uses less than its full capabilities, and (ii) and a high-power mode of operation in which self-powered device consumes more than the pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the self-powered device uses its full capabilities.

Claims

1. A device, the device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising;

instructions for selecting one of a plurality of modes of operation, wherein the plurality of modes of operation include;

(i) a low-power mode of operation in which the device consumes less than a pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the device has less than full functionality, and (ii) and a high-power mode of operation in which the device consumes more than the pre-determined or adaptively-determined amount of power and the device has more functionality than in the low-power mode wherein the instructions for selecting one of a plurality of modes of operation include instructions for conserving power by transitioning from the high-power mode of operation to the low-power mode of operation.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is self-powered.

3. The device of claim 1, further comprising instructions for communicating, at pre-determined or adaptively-determined periodic intervals, with a remote computing device, by periodically enabling a transceiver at the device during the high-power mode of operation.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the periodic enabling of the transceiver is performed in accordance with a synchronization of the device with one or more devices on a network.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein a duty-cycle of the device is aligned with a duty-cycle of the remote computing device such that the transceiver of the device is enabled at the same time as a transceiver of the remote computing device.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising instructions for communicating with a central device on a network only during a time-slot, allocated for the device, occurring at a pre-assigned phase within a periodic interval, to avoid contention with other communicating devices on the network.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the allocated time-slot is assigned to the device from a plurality of time-slots in accordance with a procedure selected from the group consisting of:

a pseudo-random procedure, a round-robin procedure, a fairness procedure, a procedure assigning highest priority to a most energy-poor device, and any combination of the aforementioned procedures.

8. The device of claim 3, further comprising instructions for a built-in latency to await, at the device, an acknowledgement message from the remote computing device in response to a message transmitted by the device.

9. The device of claim 8, further comprising instructions to minimize the built-in latency for awaiting the acknowledgement message by a procedure selected from the group consisting of:

enforcing immediate acknowledgment of the transmitted message by the remote computing device, enforcing acknowledgment of the transmitted message as a high-priority task by the remote computing device, decoalescing a combined acknowledgement message obtained from a plurality of acknowledgement messages coalesced by the remote computing device, preferentially processing messages where a sender is awaiting a response, and any combination of the aforementioned procedures.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising instructions for communicating with one or more remote devices, using a protocol selected from the group consisting of:

radio-based protocols, light-based protocols, magnetic-induction-based protocols, and any combination of the aforementioned protocols.

11. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of sub-systems;

an energy collector configured to collect energy to power the device from an environment surrounding the device;

a voltage converter to generate a plurality of output voltages in accordance with voltage requirements of each of the plurality of sub-systems; and

a storage device to store energy.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the energy collector is configured to operate at a pre-determined or adaptively-determined optimal operating point, such that an output voltage at a desired output current is designed to yield maximum power from the available input energy collected by the collector from the environment.

13. The device of claim 12, further comprising instructions for determining the optimal operating point of the energy collector in accordance with one or more of:

a variation in an incident light intensity, a variation in an operating temperature, processing conditions of the device, and manufacturing conditions of the device.

14. The device of claim 12, further comprising instructions for adaptively determining the optimal operating point of the energy collector by iteratively varying current operating points in a direction that results in an increase in a measured power level obtained from the energy collector.

15. The device of claim 14, further comprising instructions for adaptively determining the optimal operating point under extreme ambient conditions by constraining a number of consecutive iterative steps in a specified direction.

16. The device of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to conserve power by operating at a voltage level adapted in accordance with a frequency of operation of the controller and a set of functions to be performed by the controller.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the controller comprises non-volatile memory circuits;

and the controller is further configured to conserve power by combining a plurality of update operations to the non-volatile memory circuits so as to share among the plurality of update operations, overhead time required for each update operation.

18. The device of claim 1, further including a single-indicator display configured for conserving energy by use of intermittent power at a frequency above a first predefined threshold such that the single-indicator display appears, to a human eye, to be powered on continuously.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the single-indicator display is further configured for conserving energy by use of intermittent power at a duty-cycle below a second predefined threshold such that the single-indicator appears, to the human eye, to be brighter than a desired brightness level.

20. The device of claim 1, further comprising instructions to automatically initiate communication with an external device, when the device is configured as one or more of:

a security sensor to detect a plurality of environmental states, a self-health indicator to communicate a plurality of operating conditions of the device, a heating-ventilation-air-conditioning sensor, and an intercom to process and transmit voice signals.