Wireless integrated microsystems rely heavily on the availability of low-power microelectronics for control, data processing, and communication. Power-efficient circuit design enables small form factors/low-cost, as well as long-battery-life (or opens up the possibility of energy scavenging). The micropower circuits thrust aims at greatly reducing the power budgets of integrated circuits using a range of techniques that are suitable for incorporation into generic microsystems. Both digital and analog circuits are targeted, with primary emphasis on the digital processing domain. Furthermore, the thrust includes low-power compilation work, as well as the software development for the WIMS testbeds. Highlights are given below:

The biomedical and environmental testbeds are being supported by the thrust through the development of the WIMS microcontroller, which can be viewed as the "brain" of the microsystems. The 2nd-generation microcontroller (µC) is the centerpiece, and there are supporting projects around it in the area of compilers, software, and digital signal processing. The DSP core is now built into the microcontroller making the WIMS µC equally applicable to the two testbeds. Interface circuits are also being designed and will be used for testing of the next-generation environmental testbed. There is also collaboration between this thrust and wireless interfaces in that many of the wireless techniques being investigated in the latter thrust are using novel low-power approaches.

A second major component of the thrust is the pursuit of fundamental research to support the WIMS mission of a generic microsystem platform. Specifically, researchers in the thrust are pursuing energy-scavenging techniques, microbatteries, and hybrid power sources. Furthermore, there is substantial work ongoing in the area of nanoWatt-level data storage, computation, and wireless communication to support ubiquitous sensing applications. Finally, there is an underlying layer of investigation into basic ultra-low-power circuit design techniques that will be required for meeting highly constrained power budgets in future microsystems. Many of these projects are coming together in an intra-ocular pressure sensor platform for glaucoma research.