Nanomechanical Self-Timed Power Management Circuit for Low-Power IoT Devices

Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications often see harsh environmental conditions such as high temperatures and radiation levels, which reduce the efficiency of CMOS power converters. This paper presents a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relay-based power management unit that can operate in such conditions with zero standby power. The proposed circuit is selftimed and does not need a clock or an external synchronization signal, and minimises switching activity to mitigate against the limited lifetime of NEM relays. Simulation results show that the proposed circuit can maintain a stable voltage of 5.7 V DC when supplying a <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$20 \mu \mathrm{A}$</tex> load, with 33% power conversion efficiency. This proof of concept demonstrates the potential of nanomechanical circuits for power management in low-power harsh environment IoT applications where Si transistors struggle to operate.