MIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Long Range Battery-Less PV-Powered RFID Tag Sensors

Author(s)
Kantareddy, Sai Nithin R.; Mathews, Ian; Bhattacharyya, Rahul; Peters, Ian Marius; Buonassisi, Anthony; Sarma, Sanjay E; ... Show more Show less
Thumbnail
DownloadAccepted version (1.561Mb)
Open Access Policy

Open Access Policy

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike

Terms of use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
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 long-range PV-RFID idea to practice by creating functional prototypes of: 1) a wireless building environment sensor to monitor temperature and 2) an embedded tracker to find lost golf balls. The read range of PV-RFID is enhanced eight 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.
Date issued
2019-04
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130309
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Photovoltaic Research Laboratory; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Auto-ID Laboratory
Journal
IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Kantareddy, Sai Nithin R. et al. "Long Range Battery-Less PV-Powered RFID Tag Sensors." IEEE Internet of Things Journal 6, 4 (April 2019): 6989 - 6996 © 2019 IEEE
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
2327-4662
2372-2541

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibilityContact us
MIT
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.