A 200 μm by 100 μm Smart Dust system with an average current consumption of 1.3 nA

SynCells: A 60 × 60 μm2 Electronic Platform with Remote Actuation for Sensing Applications in Constrained Environments

“…Autonomous microsystems are a promising solution for sensing in constrained spaces, offering a high degree of flexibility without external wires. One way such microsystems can be built is by heavily leveraging CMOS integration to miniaturize electronic sensing systems into a single sub-millimeter package, sometimes referred to as Smart Dust. , Several silicon-based autonomous sensor nodes with sizes down to a few hundred micrometers have been demonstrated, mainly for medical and biosensing applications. − ,− However, such systems are still too large to enter microfluidic channels or blood vessels. Designing CMOS-based microsystems below 100 μm in size is exceedingly difficult since complex circuitry such as microcontrollers are no longer feasible even with advanced technology nodes and energy available from storage or harvesting elements is severely limited to a few microwatts at best. ,, …”

Microelectronic Morphogenesis: Smart Materials with Electronics Assembling into Artificial Organisms

“…A near‐microscopic chiplet (at 100 µm scale, called lablets because of their functioning as an electrochemical/electrokinetic laboratory) able to send its program to another similar chiplet was designed and constructed as part of the MICREAgents (Microscale Chemically Reactive Electronic Agents) project. [ 146,147 ]…”

“…A near-microscopic chiplet (at 100 μm scale, called lablets because of their functioning as an electrochemical/electrokinetic laboratory) able to send its program to another similar chiplet was designed and constructed as part of the MICREAgents (Microscale Chemically Reactive Electronic Agents) project. [146,147] With this key functionality, SMARTLET differentiation variants, while generally involving diverse changes of a mechanical or chemical nature, may in a minimal case simply depend on the choice of electronic signaling and regulation between SMARTLETs and the way in which electronic programs connect this information with electronic state changes, which may, in turn, result in changes to the portion of chiplet memory responsible for inheritable differences in operation (equivalent to gene expression control in cells). Of course, one should not argue for a one-to-one translation of cellular differentiation to SMARTLETs, as there are many differences and unique opportunities arising from the digital programmability of SMARTLETswhether as serial or parallel machines.…”