Wireless Sensor Node Platform for In-Plant Stress Monitoring

To equip farmers with tools that aid in crop monitoring and help optimize the use of valuable resources such as fertilizer and water, a wireless sensor node is developed. The sensor node communicates extracted data from inside the crop pertaining to the plant's health to an end user. A transmitter and receiver are the key electronics in effective wireless communications between the sensor node and end user. Several RF circuits were designed and fabricated in GlobalFoundries' (GF) 0.13 μm BiCMOS process and combined with a commercial off-the-shelf wake-up receiver to enable data transmission upon user request. This low power prototype design is intended to be supplied from a micro-battery with a capacity of 278.6 Joules and proposed lifetime of 1 month. The integrated circuits designed include an RF power amplifier, bandgap reference and linear regulators for power supply management.