3-D SENSORS FOR POWER SYSTEM RELIABILITY

Abstract

Network-centric power grid infrastructure demands robust systems that can respond automatically and dynamically to natural, accidental, and deliberate contingencies, be they on a local scale, regional, or national. This concept paper discusses a 3-D heterogeneous system on a chip (3-D HSoC) concept for power grid sensing, with potential applications to autonomous reconfiguration for isolation of points or segments of failure, fault-distance calculation, and power flow optimization - attributes common to a smart grid. The proposed 3-D HSoC has multiple planes and could be deployed on the ceramic insulators of the transmission lines. Its top plane bears current and voltage sensors. The next plane houses the analog circuitry. Finally, the third - the digital plane - contains the intelligence of the device. We present the architecture and methodology for power grid applications, such as those just mentioned, using the J-platform on the digital plane, which employs coarse-grain VLSI cells with high functionality, performance, and reconfigurability. The fundamental objectives of how to avoid cascade blackouts and set protection schemes appropriately is being addressed here by the potential deployment of these 3-D devices with multiple sensor types on a common plane and the generation of necessary inter-planar vias to the analog and digital planes through MEMS technology.