The demand for smart, low-power, and low-cost sensors is rapidly increasing with the proliferation of industry automation. In this context, an Ultra-Low Power Eddy Current Displacement Sensor (ULP-ECDS) targeting common industrial applications and designed to be embedded in wireless Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices is presented. A complete characterization of the realized ULP-ECDS operating with different metallic targets was carried out. The choice of the considered targets in terms of material and thickness was inspired by typical industrial scenarios. The experimental results show that the realized prototype works properly with extremely low supply voltages, allowing for obtaining an ultra-low power consumption, significantly lower than other state-of-the-art solutions. In particular, the proposed sensor reached the best resolution of 2 µm in case of a carbon steel target when operated with a supply voltage of 200 mV and with a power consumption of 150 µW. By accepting a resolution of 12 µm, it is possible to further reduce the power consumption of the sensor to less than 10 µW. The obtained results also demonstrate how the performances of the sensor are strongly dependent on both the target and the demodulation technique used to extract the displacement information. This allowed for defining some practical guidelines that can help the design of effective solutions considering application-specific constraints.

中文翻译：

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目标对工业应用中超低功率涡流位移传感器性能的影响

随着工业自动化的发展，对智能，低功耗和低成本传感器的需求正在迅速增长。在这种情况下，提出了一种针对常见工业应用的超低功率涡流位移传感器（ULP-ECDS），该传感器旨在嵌入无线工业物联网（IIoT）设备中。对在不同金属靶上运行的已实现ULP-ECDS进行了完整的表征。在材料和厚度方面考虑的目标的选择是受典型的工业场景启发的。实验结果表明，所实现的原型可以在极低的电源电压下正常工作，从而获得超低功耗，远低于其他最新解决方案。尤其是，当使用200 mV的电源电压和150 µW的功耗工作时，对于碳钢靶材，建议的传感器达到2 µm的最佳分辨率。通过接受12 µm的分辨率，可以进一步将传感器的功耗降低到10 µW以下。所获得的结果还证明了传感器的性能如何在很大程度上取决于目标和用于提取位移信息的解调技术。这样就可以定义一些实用准则，从而可以考虑到特定于应用程序的约束来帮助设计有效的解决方案。可以进一步将传感器的功耗降低到10 µW以下。所获得的结果还证明了传感器的性能如何在很大程度上取决于目标和用于提取位移信息的解调技术。这样就可以定义一些实用准则，从而可以考虑到特定于应用程序的约束来帮助设计有效的解决方案。可以进一步将传感器的功耗降低到10 µW以下。所获得的结果还证明了传感器的性能如何在很大程度上取决于目标和用于提取位移信息的解调技术。这样就可以定义一些实用准则，从而可以考虑到特定于应用程序的约束来帮助设计有效的解决方案。