Design and Analysis of a Mechanical XOR Gate Based Zero Power Device

Inhalt:
Zero power devices have broad applications in fields such as IoT and biomedicine, where they operate as energy harvest-ers, drawing power from their surroundings. In this study, the focus is on integrating sensitive polymers, such as hydro- gels, into a mechanical device to create a zero power sensor. The hydrogel volume changes in response to external conditions, generating a force that is recorded by the mechanical device over time. The passive device is designed based on the concept of mechanical logic gate, which operates using mechanical motion instead of electrical signals. Linkages, microgears and spring-mass systems are used to implement the device. By using a mechanical XOR gate bidirectional signal changes can be converted into a unidirectional incrementation of displacement for data storage. The CAD drawing and the simulation results for the device are presented. Possible solutions to the problems faced by the device are then discussed at the later part of this report, followed by an insight into the future research directions.