WP5: SoCs for Autonomous IoT Devices

This work package addresses key specific circuit developments that are instrumental to empower the ubiquitous deployment of sustainable, miniature, energy-autonomous, Internet of Things (IoT) wireless sensor nodes (WSN) that hold the promises of the next data revolution, currently hindered by excessive power dissipation and limited energy density. Firstly, advances in energy harvesting and power management are necessary to eliminate: (i) batteries, reducing environmental waste and costly maintenance due to their frequent replacement; (ii) voltage headroom imposed by PVT variations, and (iii) energy leakage by aggressive duty cycling to lower power dissipation. Secondly, improved synchronization with accurate timing permits among others just-in-time rendezvous minimizing dissipation overheads. Thirdly, neither 6G nor SATCOM radios developed in WP3, 4, neither current LPWAN (LORA, NB-IOT) nor PAN (WiFi, BLE) solutions satisfy extreme-edge to cloud connectivity scenarios due to excessive power dissipation. Dedicated ULP radios based on novel approaches preserving state-of-the-art linearity and sensitivity have thus to be engineered. Data acquisition, conversion, processing and reduction, handling, and encryption will mostly be addressed in WPs 8, 7, 6, and 2 respectively. Such functions will be integrated into SoCs or SiPs with missing dedicated AFEs in this WP, targeting system level demonstrators exemplifying the synergies between the different SwissChips WPs. Paving the way towards energy autonomous, distributed, smart sensing systems, SwissChips, and WP5 will reinforce the competitiveness of Europe in the sensing/data area in line with the GDPR and contribute to the development of a more sustainable society.