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

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 555 nm 150 Watts commercial incandescent bulb. Experimental results show a power/area of the photocell of ∼110 pW/μm2.