Beriain, A. (Andoni)
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- A new practical approach for a basic electrical instrumentation lab to enhance student engagement and performance(Instituto de Óptica "Daza de Valdes", Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales "Daza de Valdes", 2024) Pérez, N. (Noemí); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Solar, H. (Hector); Rezola-Garciandia, A. (Ainhoa)Basic energy and electricity concepts are often misunderstood by first-year engineering students. One of the main reasons for this is that these concepts are perceived as abstract, making it challenging for students to relate them to real-life situations. Experimental laboratories are designed to help students delve deeper into these concepts. However, the demand for more visual aids by students, coupled with their limited ability to grasp complex ideas, often leads to the perception that some labs are outdated and reinforces misconceptions. To address this issue, this article introduces a novel laboratory workbench and methodology aimed at enhancing basic electrical energy and instrumentation laboratory sessions. The approach utilizes a more visual and interactive platform that enables students to connect electrical concepts with real-life elements. Prior to attending the class, students watch instructional videos that demonstrate the practical procedures, following the Flipped Learning strategy. The results of this study reveal that students felt more confident during the laboratory sessions and exhibited a more active attitude, actively asking questions and defending their viewpoints. Professors also observed that time was utilized more effectively, allowing for a better understanding of topics and clarification of confusing content. Overall, the proposed lab sessions significantly improve the learning experience of first-year Physics students and foster their autonomy in learning.
- Power management unit for solar energy harvester assisted batteryless wireless sensor node.(MDPI, 2022-10) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Lopez-Gasso, A. (Alberto); Beriain, A. (Andoni)This work describes an energy-efficient monolithic Power Management Unit (PMU) that includes a charge pump adapted to photovoltaic cells with the capability of charging a large supply capacitor and managing the stored energy efficiently to provide the required supply voltage and power to low energy consumption wireless sensor nodes such as RFID sensor tags. The proposed system starts-up self-sufficiently with a light source luminosity equal to or higher than 500 lux using only a 1.42 cm(2) solar cell and integrating an energy monitor that gives the ability to supply autonomous sensor nodes with discontinuous operation modes. The system occupies an area of 0.97 mm(2) with a standard 180 nm CMOS technology. The half-floating architecture avoids losses of charging the top/button plate of the stray capacitors in each clock cycle. Measurements' results on a fabricated IC exhibit an efficiency above 60% delivering 13.14 mu W over 1.8 V. The harvested energy is enough to reach the communication range of a standard UHF RFID sensor tag up to 21 m.
- A 21 m operation range RFID tag for "Pick to Light" applications with a photovoltaic harvester(2020) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Del-Rio-Orduña, D. (David); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Lopez-Gasso, A. (Alberto); Golpe, D. (Diego); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Astigarraga, A. (Aingeru)In this paper, a novel Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag for "pick to light" applications is presented. The proposed tag architecture shows the implementation of a novel voltage limiter and a supply voltage (VDD) monitoring circuit to guarantee a correct operation between the tag and the reader for the "pick to light" application. The feasibility to power the tag with different photovoltaic cells is also analyzed, showing the influence of the illuminance level (lx), type of source light (fluorescent, LED or halogen) and type of photovoltaic cell (photodiode or solar cell) on the amount of harvested energy. Measurements show that the photodiodes present a power per unit package area for low illuminance levels (500 lx) of around 0.08 mu W/mm(2), which is slightly higher than the measured one for a solar cell of 0.06 mu W/mm(2). However, solar cells present a more compact design for the same absolute harvested power due to the large number of required photodiodes in parallel. Finally, an RFID tag prototype for "pick to light" applications is implemented, showing an operation range of 3.7 m in fully passive mode. This operation range can be significantly increased to 21 m when the tag is powered by a solar cell with an illuminance level as low as 100 lx and a halogen bulb as source light.
- 0.5 V and 0.43 pJ/bit capacitive sensor interface for passive wireless sensor systems.(MDPI, 2015-09) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Gutierrez, I. (Íñigo)This paper presents an ultra low-power and low-voltage pulse-width modulation based ratiometric capacitive sensor interface. The interface was designed and fabricated in a standard 90 nm CMOS 1P9M technology. The measurements show an effective resolution of 10 bits using 0.5 V of supply voltage. The active occupied area is only 0.0045 mm2 and the Figure of Merit (FOM), which takes into account the energy required per conversion bit, is 0.43 pJ/bit. Furthermore, the results show low sensitivity to PVT variations due to the proposed ratiometric architecture. In addition, the sensor interface was connected to a commercial pressure transducer and the measurements of the resulting complete pressure sensor show a FOM of 0.226 pJ/bit with an effective linear resolution of 7.64 bits. The results validate the use of the proposed interface as part of a pressure sensor, and its low-power and low-voltage characteristics make it suitable for wireless sensor networks and low power consumer electronics.
- Semi-passive UHF RFID sensor tags: A comprehensive review(2023) Montiel-Nelson, J.A.(Juan A.); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Solar, H. (Hector); Sosa, J. (Javier)This paper presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the state-of-the-art (SoA) in semi-passive or Battery-Assisted (BAP) Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor tags compliant with EPC Global G2/ISO-18000C. These tags operate on the same communication principle as fully passive sensor tags but incorporate a battery or an energy harvesting module. This additional power source extends communication ranges and enables power demanding applications using low-power microcontrollers (MCUs) and higher-end sensors. This article also analyzes various key features, including tag integrated circuit (IC) architecture, types of energy harvesting modules, and communication range. The main conclusions are threefold. Firstly, selecting the appropriate tag IC requires a careful analysis of its features such as sensitivity, sensor interfaces, or data logging capabilities. For instance, among the solutions examined in the SoA, half of them opted for a tag IC capable of MCU communication via SPI or I2C buses. Secondly, it is essential to assess both the forward and backward communication links to leverage the sensitivity of the tag IC in BAP mode. Interestingly, only one-third of the SoA solutions achieved the theoretical communication range anticipated by the sensitivity of the tag IC. Finally, an energy budget analysis is required to ensure that the energy generation suffices to meet the energy requirements of the tag. While most solutions rely on batteries as the energy source and analyze battery lifespan, only a few studies employing energy harvesters conduct an energy budget analysis due to the additional complexity involved.
- A compact, wideband, and temperature robust 67-90-GHz SiGe power amplifier with 30% PAE(IEEE, 2019-05) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Del-Rio-Orduña, D. (David); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Gurutzeaga-Zubillaga, I. (Iñaki)This letter presents the design of a compact, wideband, and high-efficiency E-band power amplifier, integrated in a 0.13-mu m BiCMOS process and occupying 0.3 mm(2). It consists of a single-stage balanced amplifier, with HBT transistors in cascode configuration. The power amplifier (PA) is biased in class AB, with a dc consumption of 156 mW. A compact bias circuit is employed to achieve temperature robustness, while the layout is optimized for wideband and highly efficient operation. Measurements show a peak power gain of 15.3 dB at 83 GHz, with a 29.3% fractional bandwidth and less than 1-dB degradation over a 25 degrees C-85 degrees C temperature range. The peak output power at saturation and 1-dB compression is 18.6 and 13.6 dBm, respectively, and the maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) is 30.7%.
- A high accuracy 3.1V voltage limiter for enabling high performance RFID sensor applications.(IEEE, 2019) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Del-Rio-Orduña, D. (David); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Gurutzeaga-Zubillaga, I. (Iñaki); Rezola-Garciandia, A. (Ainhoa)This paper presents a low power voltage limiter design that avoids possible damages in the analog front-end of a RFID sensor due to voltage surges whenever the tag gets close to the reader. The proposed voltage limiter design takes advantage of the implemented bandgap reference block in order to provide a highly accurate limiting voltage in spite of temperature variation and process dispersion. The measured limiting voltage is 3.1V while showing a low current consumption of 100nA when the reader and the tag are far away, so that the sensitivity of the tag is not impacted due to an undesired consumption in the voltage limiter. The circuit is implemented in a low cost 180nm CMOS technology.
- UHF RFID temperature sensor assisted with body-heat dissipation energy harvesting(IEEE, 2017-03) Jimenez Irastorza, A. (Ainara); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Zalbide, I. (Ibon); Galarraga, I. (Iñaki); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Solar, H. (Hector); Jauregi Unanue, I. (Iñigo)The number of wireless medical wearables has increased in recent years and is revolutionizing the current healthcare system. However, the state-of-the-art systems still need to be improved, as they are bulky, battery powered, and so require maintenance. On the contrary, battery-free wearables have unlimited lifetimes, are smaller, and are cheaper. This paper describes a design of a battery free wearable system that measures the skin temperature of the human body while at the same time collects energy from body heat. The system is composed of an UHF RFID temperature sensor tag located on the arm of the patient. It is assisted with extra power supply from a power harvesting module that stores the thermal energy dissipated from the neck of the patient. This paper presents the experimental results of the stored thermal energy, and characterizes the module in different conditions, e.g., still, walking indoors, and walking outdoors. Finally, the tag is tested in a fully passive condition and when it is power assisted. Our experimental results show that the communication range of the RFID sensor is improved by 100% when measurements are done every 750 ms and by 75% when measurements are done every 1000 ms when the sensor is assisted with the power harvesting module.
- A 22-m operation range semi-passive UHF RFID sensor tag with flexible thermoelectric energy harvester.(IEEE, 2022-10) Solar-Ruiz, H. (Hector); Del-Rio-Orduña, D. (David); Berenguer-Pérez, R.J. (Roque José); Beriain, A. (Andoni); Rezola-Garciandia, A. (Ainhoa)This article presents a wireless temperature sensor tag able to work in both fully passive mode and in semi-passive mode when assisted by a flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG). The sensor tag consists of an EPC C1G2/ISO 18000-6C ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC) connected to a low-power microcontroller unit (MCU) that samples and collects the temperature from a digital temperature sensor. With a temperature gradient as low as 2.5 degrees C, the test results show that the TEG provides an output power of 400 mu W with an output voltage of 40 mV. By means of an up-converter in order to boost the TEG output voltage, this harvester supplies the power required to the sensor tag for a 2-conv/s data rate in semi-passive mode. Moreover, when the tag operates in semi-passive mode, a communication range of 22.2 m is measured for a 2-W effective radiated power (ERP) reader. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed TEG-assisted sensor tag shows the longest communication range and the only one that provides stable external power at low-temperature gradients. The measured performance and the chosen architecture allow using the wireless sensor in multiple industrial or biomedical applications