Micro-photovoltaic cells designed for magnetotaxis-based controlled bacterial microrobots

Abstract

A new architecture allowing an increase of the photocurrent of a photovoltaic cell fabricated with a CMOS 0.18µm process is described. This cell has been designed specifically to power the onboard electronics of a 400µm × 600µm untethered microrobot propelled by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB). Four cascaded cells of an area of 200µm × 200µm each, provide a short circuit current of 70µA and an open voltage of 0.48V from a 555nm 150 Watts commercial incandescent bulb. Experimental results show a power/area of the photocell of ∼ 110pW/µm².