B. Sensor conditioning, ultra low-power and energy harvesting circuits for autonomous sensors.

MEMS Brownian noise and low signal level demand precise circuits to maximize sensor performance. In particular, pressure sensor and Lorentz force magnetometer conditioning will be based on closed-loop oscillation of mechanical elements. Thus, this requires a chain of signal processing circuits, analog and digital.

In many distributed sensor applications, the system must be able to work without any external connection. Thus, the required energy will be kept to the minimum necessary and collected from the environment through energy harvesting techniques. The power management stages must be optimized to handle very low power and voltage.

The integration feasibility of environmental energy harvesting systems together with power management circuits will be considered. Of course, this will constrain the duty cycle of sensing operation and tradeoffs on the sensing performance will also arise.