manner, it likely needs maintenance, which
can be done before the machine fails and
leads to unwanted downtime.
Such a sensor would need to be powered
and be able to communicate relevant
data discriminately and wirelessly to a
host. The simplest way to power a remote
sensor would be with a battery, but power
conversion would need to be highly
efficient. Having onboard intelligence to
do local data processing and inference
requires more power but would reduce
the power necessary to transmit data.
The more intelligent the sensor is, the
more the power supply must adapt.
ADI recently launched Voyager 4, a
microelectromechanical systems–based
wireless vibration monitoring platform for
asset health monitoring with edge AI. This
complete evaluation solution supports
decision-making at the edge, which
reduces network overhead and improves
battery life by employing an ultralow-
power microcontroller and robust low-
power Bluetooth Low Energy technology.
In these industrial condition-based
monitoring scenarios, no golden rule
exists as to which power supply is best,
but powering a sensor with a cable
negates the need to replace or recharge
batteries. Conveyor belt vibration
monitoring comes with safety concerns,
so power management plays a role in
reducing the likelihood of sparks in the
event of a malfunction.
Battery-powered devices
must be efficient
Portability is often a deciding factor in
power management for microcontrollers,
which means the device must be designed
to be very efficient so the battery runs
longer. Any power supply would also need
to be relatively small and lightweight but
with a high power density.
C h a p t e r 2 | M i c r o c o n t r o l l e r s a n d P o w e r M a n a g e m e n t
We faced the challenge of running
an intelligent vision sensor on a
single Li-ion cell for 30 days on a
full charge. To tackle this power
management issue, we designed
the system to remain in ultra-
low-power mode most of the
time, with periodic wake-ups at
scheduled intervals."
Kamalakumar K
Platform Architect, Dyson
13
Power Management: Efficiently Powering Processors, FPGAs, and Microcontrollers
