Maximization of imaging resolution in optical wireless sensor/lab-on-chip/SoC networks with solar cells

Abstract

The availability of sophisticated and low-cost hardware on a single chip, for example, CMOS cameras, CPU, DSP, processors and communication transceivers, optics, microfluidics, and micromechanics, has fostered the development of system-on-chip (SoC) technology, such as lab-on-chip or wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs). WMSNs are networks of wirelessly interconnected devices on a chip that are able to ubiquitously retrieve multimedia content such as video from the environment and transfer it to a central location for additional processing. In this paper, we study WMSNs that include an optical wireless communication transceiver that uses light to transmit the information. One of the primary challenges in SoC design is to attain adequate resources like energy harvesting using solar cells in addition to imaging and communication capabilities, all within stringent spatial limitations while maximizing system performances. There is an inevitable trade-off between enhancing the imaging resolution and the expense of reducing communication capacity and energy harvesting capabilities, on one hand, and increasing the communication or the solar cell size to the detriment of the imaging resolution, on the other hand. We study these trade-offs, derive a mathematical model to maximize the resolution of the imaging system, and present a numerical example that demonstrates maximum imaging resolution. Our results indicate that an eighth-order polynomial with only two constants provides the required area allocation between the different functionalities.