Researchers at the University of Michigan have been successful in developing an extremely tiny solar powered sensor. The solar sensor is said to be 1,000 times smaller as compared to other commercial counterparts.

All of the system’s components, the processor, solar cells, and battery are contained in a frame measuring 2.5 x  3.5 x 1mm.  The system contains the ARM Cortex-M3 processor that utilizes almost 2,000 times less power in sleep mode as compared to other most energy-efficient counterparts available in the market currently.

According to David Blaauw, who is an electrical and computer engineering professor, the system can run almost continuously if it is exposed periodically to reasonable lighting conditions, even indoors and the only limiting factor is the life of the battery.

The sensor usually works in sleep mode, waking briefly every few minutes to take measurements. The total average power consumption of the system is less than 1 nanowatt, which is one-billionth of a watt.

Moreover, the ARM Cortex-M3 processor, that the sensor contains, is popular in the micro controller industry for their low-power, energy efficient features such as deep sleep mode and Wake-Up Interrupt Controller, which allows the core to be placed in very low leakage mode, returning to fully active mode almost instantaneously.

According to the researchers, the device can greatly improve the efficiency and cost of current environmental sensor networks that are designed to detect movement or track air and water quality.

The sensor can also be used in new biomedical implants and potential medical applications such as ways to monitor pressure changes in the eyes, brain, and in tumors in patients with glaucoma, head trauma, or cancer. Once in the body, the sensor can utilize the energy from movement or heat, rather than light.

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