Qadeer A Khan and Sarvesh J Bang
Oregon State University

Recent advancements in semiconductor and transducer technology have made ambient energy harvesting a practical reality. Most recent application of micro-power harvesting has been in wearable health monitoring system. Toumaz Technology announced a battery powered smart wearable device integrating most of the essential medical testing on a single chip which ultimately aims to help patients get medical monitoring from the comfort of home. The device is capable of monitoring as many as three vital signs by interfacing with micro sensors and communicates through wireless network for data transmission. Since the use of battery provides limited run time and makes the system less autonomous, a source of constant energy is therefore required to power such systems. We discuss energy scavenging and power management techniques which make the system fully autonomous and operate without battery.