A low cost system and method are provided for long-term monitoring of the quality
of a building structure utilizing a semiconductor integrated circuit device buried
in the structure. A monitoring chip includes a sensor, a microprocessor, a memory,
a radio interface, an electric power controller and an electric power generator.
The monitoring chip intermittently receives power to intermittently monitor information
such as whether concrete is adequately cured, whether the quantity of moisture
and chloride ions in concrete paste is adequate, or whether a state of stress inside
concrete is in question. Temperature sensors, electric resistance sensors and pressure
sensors respectively built in the monitoring chip use the built-in electric power
generator as a power source, and the system store any abnormal measured values
in a built-in memory. Collected quality data is transmitted according to an external
request to indicate building structure quality.