Design of a novel, Battery-less, Solar Powered Wireless Tag for enhanced range remote tracking applications (original) (raw)
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Autonomous Active Tag Using Energy Harvesting Strategies
Applied Sciences, 2020
In this work, we present autonomous active tags. The power sources of these active tags employ energy harvesting techniques, specifically, solar and mechanical techniques. The integration of these techniques, and the storage of the energy obtained with a supercapacitor, converts the active tag into an autonomous device. These tags work in a low power mode in which they dynamically adjust their radio communication capabilities. Such a configuration depends on the application. We tested the tags in a real environment with testing parameters to check the modules, meaning more wake-ups over a longer time. Under these conditions, the tags gather enough energy to autonomously maintain standby operation on a sunny day for ten hours. In conclusion, this autonomous active tag is a demonstration that the integration of energy harvesting techniques, supercapacitor storage and the management of low power modes for transceivers, microcontrollers, and memories creates a device without energy depe...
Long Range Battery-Less PV-Powered RFID Tag Sensors
IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Communication range in passive Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) front-end devices is a critical barrier in the real-world implementation of this low-cost technology. Purely passive RFID tags power up by harvesting the limited RF energy transmitted by the interrogator, and communicate by backscattering the incident signal. This mode of communication keeps manufacturing costs below a few cents per tag, but the limited power available at the tag undermines long-range deployment. In this paper, we present an approach to use Photovoltaics (PV) to augment the available energy at the tag to improve read range and sensing capabilities. We provide this extra-energy to the RFID integrated circuit (IC) using minimum additional electronics yet enabling persistent sensor-data acquisition. Current and emerging thin-film PV technologies have significant potential for being very low-cost, hence eliminating the barrier for implementation and making of PV-RFID wireless sensors. We reduce the longrange PV-RFID idea to practice by creating functional prototypes of i) a wireless building environment sensor to monitor temperature, and ii) an embedded tracker to find lost golf balls. The read range of PV-RFID is enhanced 8 times compared to conventional passive devices. In addition, the PV-RFID tags persistently transmit large volumes of sensor data (>0.14 million measurements per day) without using batteries. For communication range and energy persistence, we observe good agreement between calculated estimates and experimental results. We have also identified avenues for future research to develop low-cost PV-RFID devices for wireless sensing in the midst of the other competitive wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, Long Range (LoRa) backscatter etc.
Battery-less Smart RFID Tag with Sensor Capabilities
The pervasiveness of RFID technology in novel application fields, such as agriculture and food chain integrated management, is related to the addition of sensor and computational capabilities to the systems, and as a consequence, their powering becomes a challenge. Passively powered devices, such as inductively coupled passive HF RFID systems, utilize an external electromagnetic field to operate without an internal power source. This paper presents a battery-less RFID sensor useful to establish a safer and more manageable food supply chain of perishable comestibles.
Wirelessly-Charged UHF Tags for Sensor Data Collection
2008
We present the WISP Passive Data Logger (PDL), an RFID sensor data logging platform that relies on a new, wirelessly-charged power model. A PDL has no battery yet (unlike a passive sensor tag) is able to collect data while away from an RFID reader. A PDL senses and logs data using energy stored in a capacitor; the capacitor can be wirelessly recharged (unlike active tags), and data can be uploaded whenever the PDL is near a reader. Standard EPC Generation 2 readers are used for WISP-PDL charging, ID-reading, and sensor data transfer. This allows WISP-PDLs to operate using commercial RFID readers as the only support infrastructure (for both data and power), and allows WISP-PDLs to co-exist with standard RFID tags. We describe the design and implementation of a prototype WISP-PDL, and report results from a short demonstration study that shows it can monitor the temperature and fullness of a milk carton as it is used over the course of a day.
This paper looks into the possible methods of harvesting energy for applications involving wireless sensors from renewable or sustainable sources. An overview of the fundamentals of energy harvesting models using renewable sources and the advancements in the components used for this purpose is given. It also provides an analysis of the issues that are restricting the current harvesting models and indicates possible advances in technologies that may soon solve those problems. There are two main issues that plague these harvesting models. Firstly, the technology involved in the actual harvesting of renewable energy sources is not well developed and offer poor efficiency. In addition to that, most of the models need a permanent storage device, such as a battery or capacitor in order to operate. This is a serious drawback in applications involving wireless sensors as these devices have limited capacity, lifetime, and require a large area to work efficiently. This is most often not favorable as the attractions of using wireless sensors are in its portability and form. This paper looks into the studies dedicated to solving these problems. The latter part of the paper contains a discussion regarding the technologies that are best suited for applications in wireless sensors. The two most readily available and feasible options of a sustainable energy for these applications are found out to be RF (Radio Frequency) signal and solar radiation. Therefore, the final part of the paper concentrates on reviewing a model that may potentially be able to serve as a basis for a singular model for any kind of energy harvesting from renewable sources.
2011
A prototype smart animal ear tag has been developed to meet the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) animal disease traceability requirement. This novel "Smart Tag" is a self-powered device capable of complete animal identification and tracking. Information on animal health, breeding and vaccination records can also be locally stored and retrieved from these small, economical and securely accessible wireless tags. These smart tags are capable of self-organizing into wireless ad-hoc networks for data reporting and retrieval. This work presents study of the distance coverage of a "Smart Tag" and a cost-benefit analysis of "Smart implementation. The mean distance range for a single hop (battery source of power) was 22.6 ± 1.38 m and for a single hop (solar source of power) was 29 m. The total distance coverage using six "Smart Tags" (battery source of power) plus the central computer receiving station using multi-hop communication was 136 ± 1.58 m and for two "Smart Tags" (solar source of power) distance coverage was 54 m. However, due to their ad-hoc wireless nature, the true size of the network is limited by the number of available "Smart Tags". The more tags are connected, the larger the network will become and the larger the coverage area will be. Temperature, humidity and wind speed had no effect (p > 0.05) on packets received within the transmission range.
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I-regular Papers, 2007
We present for the first time, a fully integrated battery powered RFID integrated circuit (IC) for operation at ultrahigh frequency (UHF) and microwave bands. The battery powered RFID IC can also work as a passive RFID tag without a battery or when the battery has died (i.e., voltage has dropped below 1.3 V); this novel dual passive and battery operation allays one of the major drawbacks of currently available active tags, namely that the tag cannot be used once the battery has died. When powered by a battery, the current consumption is 700 nA at 1.5 V (400 nA if internal signals are not brought out on testpads). This ultra-low-power consumption permits the use of a very small capacity battery of 100 mA hr for lifetimes exceeding ten years; as a result a battery tag that is very close to a passive tag both in form factor and cost is made possible. The chip is built on a 1m digital CMOS process with dual poly layers, EEPROM and Schottky diodes. The RF threshold power at 2.45 GHz is -19 dBm which is the lowest ever reported threshold power for RFID tags and has a range exceeding 3.5 m under FCC unlicensed operation at the 2.4-GHz microwave band. The low threshold is achieved with architectural choices and low-power circuit design techniques. At 915 MHz, based on the experimentally measured tag impedance (92-j837) and the threshold spec of the tag (200 mV), the theoretical minimum range is 24 m. The tag initially is in a "low-power" mode to conserve power and when issued the appropriate command, it operates in "full-power" mode. The chip has on-chip voltage regulators, clock and data recovery circuits, EEPROM and a digital state machine that implements the ISO 18000-4 B protocol in the "full-power" mode. We provide detailed explanation of the clock recovery circuits and the implementation of the binary sort algorithm, which includes a pseudorandom number generator. Other than the antenna board and a battery, no external components are used.
A Wirelessly-Powered Platform for Sensing and Computation
2006
We present WISP, a wireless, battery-free platform for sensing and computation that is powered and read by a standards compliant Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) RFID reader. To the reader, the WISP appears to be an ordinary RFID tag. The WISP platform includes a general-purpose programmable flash microcontroller and implements the bi-directional communication primitives required by the Electronic Product Code (EPC) RFID standard, which allows it to communicate arbitrary sensor data via an EPC RFID reader by dynamically changing the ID it presents to the reader. For each 64 bit "packet," the WISP's microcontroller dynamically computes the 16-bit CRC that the EPC standard requires of valid packets. Because the WISP device can control all bits of the presented ID, 64 bits of sensor data can be communicated with a single RFID read event. As an example of the system in operation, we present 13 hours of continuous-valued light-level data measured by the device. All the measurements were made using power harvested from the RFID reader. No battery, and no wired connections (for either power or data) were used. As far as we are aware, this paper reports the first fully programmable computing platform that can operate using power transmitted from a long-range (UHF) RFID reader and communicate arbitrary, multi-bit data in response to a single RFID reader poll event.
Design of Solar Harvested Semi Active RFID Transponder with Supercapacitor Storage
Advances in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2015
This paper presents the analysis, design and manufacture of a low cost, low maintenance and longrange prototype of RFID transponder with continuous operability. A prototype of semi-active RFID transponder is produced with a range that can be extended via a DC input to allow all of the readers signal power to be reflected via backscatter modulation. The transponder is powered via solar harvested power which is selected over other energy harvesting technologies as it provides a greater energy density and lower cost. Solar has one major drawback in terms of providing a steady DC voltage in it needed a constant supply of sunlight. A method of power storage is proposed, and the use of a supercapacitor over a rechargeable battery is used as it has a longer lifespan due to higher recharge rates. The prototype underwent a series of experiments in various working environments and proves an effective solution in providing long lasting operability. The paper concludes the use of solar harvesting with supercapacitor storage has potential for further uses in external remote sensors used in the Internet of Things.