Low-power Microcontroller Based Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Reducing power consumption constitutes one of the most important goals to extended autonomy and to reducing the size and cost of battery power or energy harvesting systems. Most of these systems are based on microcontrollers because of their design flexibility and because manufacturers have provided them with low-power capabilities. Low-power microcontrollers can operate in several low-power modes and allow the use of dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. Power management policies must be programmed to set the proper operating mode, able to perform the required task and hold minimum energy consumption. Unfortunately, a transition time and extra consumption are required to switch to and from a low-power mode and, thus, a minimum inactivity time is required to achieve an energy benefit. This leads to design challenges in some applications, in which a low-power mode must be selected before knowing the length of the inactivity period and forecast models must be used. Furthermore, design trade-offs must be taken into consideration to select among the available microcontroller resources and configure them.

In this context, this Special Issue will focus on the latest developments in these fields. It will reflect on a wide spectrum of research topics, from experiments with its operating principle to algorithms, circuit configuration, and applications. Authors are invited to submit regular papers following the JLPEA (Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications) submission guidelines within the remit of this Special Issue call. Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Battery or energy harvesting power applications, such as medical implants, wearable fitness, autonomous sensor nodes, and agriculture and livestock monitors;
• Power consumption modelling and design trade-off between power consumption and other factors, such as speed, cost, size, or complexity;
• Power saving policies and forecast models to identify the non-activity periods and set the proper low-power mode;
• Interfacing circuits and code optimization.
  

Prof. Oscar Lopez Lapeña
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Low-power microcontroller systems
• Power-saving policies
• Dynamic power management
• Battery-powered systems
• Low-power energy harvesting systems