Smart Dust

Smart dust is tiny electronic devices designed to capture mountains of information about their surroundings while literally floating on air. Nowadays, sensors, computers and communicators are shrinking down to ridiculously small sizes. If all of these are packed into a single tiny device, it can open up new dimensions in the field of communications.The idea behind 'smart dust' is to pack sophisticated sensors, tiny computers and wireless communicators in to a cubic-millimeter mote to form the basis of integrated, massively distributed sensor networks. They will be light enough to remain suspended in air for hours. As the motes drift on wind, they can monitor the environment for light, sound, temperature, chemical composition and a wide range of other information, and beam that data back to the base station, miles away.

Smart Dust requires both evolutionary and revolutionary advances in miniaturization, integration, and energy management. Designers can use microelectromechanical systems to build small sensors, optical communication components, and power supplies, whereas microelectronics provides increasing functionality in smaller areas, with lower energy consumption. The power system consists of a thick-film battery, a solar cell with a charge-integrating capacitor for periods of darkness, or both. Depending on its objective, the design integrates various sensors, including light, temperature, vibration, magnetic field, acoustic, and wind shear, onto the mote. An integrated circuit provides sensor-signal processing, communication, control, data storage, and energy management. A photodiode allows optical data reception. There are presently two transmission schemes: passive transmission using a corner-cube retro reflector, and active transmission using a laser diode and steerable mirrors.