Autonomous Microsystem Connectivity (Internet of Things Applications USA 2018)

Wireless mesh networks are deployed worldwide in applications requiring high reliability, security, and bounded latency. Six nines of reliability and decade battery life are now routinely achieved, but with latency on he order of a second, and size in tens of cubic centimeters. We report on recent results demonstrating seven nines reliability in three milliseconds, and a path to node sizes of one cubic centimeter and below.

Kristofer S.J. Pister is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and a Co-Director of the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center.

Professor Pister's research interests include wireless sensor networks, MEMS-based microrobotics, and low-power circuit design.

Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, Professor Pister was an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1992 to 1997. He created the term "Smart Dust" and pioneered the development of ubiquitous networks of communication sensors, a concept that has since become a vital sector of technology R&D. During 2003 and 2004 he was on industrial leave as CEO and then CTO of Dust Networks, a company that he co-founded to commercialize low-power wireless sensor networks.

Professor Pister received his B.A. degree in Applied Physics from the University of California, San Diego in 1982 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989 and 1992, respectively.

Smart phones, cars, and wearable activity trackers are just a few examples of products with sensors based on technologies pioneered at the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, a Graduated NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Micro/Nanoelectromechanical Sensors & Systems (MEMS/NEMS). New research at BSAC will have even greater impacts on consumer, industrial, and medical products.