Power Consumption Profiling for Wireless Industrial Mixed-Signal Devices*

The task of optimizing an embedded mixed-signal system for low power operation is a constant trade-off between power consumption and performance that requires fast and accurate measurement results on each step to evaluate its results. A measurement system based on current mirrors and an energy driven approach was developed for obtaining power profiles of embedded mixed-signal systems. Its main advantage in comparison to standard shunt based power measurement techniques lies in the fact that it is a non-intrusive approach that can be automated and targeted for each module of an embedded mixed-signal system. It was tested and implemented in an ABB project aiming for the autonomous and low power operation of an industrial temperature measurement device.