Development of self-powered wireless sensor nodes for internet of things applications and beyond

该项目的目标是开发自供电无线传感器平台，能够感知各种物理参数，并在不需要内部能源的情况下无线传输这些传感数据。在许多新兴应用中，使用存储在电池中或通过有线连接由电网提供的能量来为无线传感器节点供电要么是不可能的，要么是昂贵得令人望而却步的，例如物联网，在这些应用中，为大量便携式节点充电和更换电池极其困难；在恶劣环境下，无法获得所需的电池，并且有线连接极其昂贵；以及在生物医学植入物中，更换电池通常需要手术。这些自给自足的无线节点运行所需的能量可以从以下任一或多种环境源获取：射频(RF)、动能或振动、热能和太阳能。射频能量收集，即从环境电磁波中收集能量的过程，是最可行的选择之一，因为在无线网络存在的情况下，可以获得具有可预测强度的射频能量。这种自给自足的无线传感器的可用性将使物联网传感器平台能够扩展到以前无法实现的水平，从而在许多工业和消费应用中显著节省成本并增强流程。虽然之前我们的团队在实施拟议系统的构建块方面取得了很大进展，包括具有创纪录效率的射频能量收集器和具有内置传感功能的超低功耗无线收发器，但在此项目中，我们计划将所有这些构建块集成并实施在单个芯片上，以生产一个低成本的自供电无线物联网传感器平台，供工业和消费应用广泛采用。这一概念验证原型将使我们能够吸引私人/政府投资成立一家公司，将这项突破性技术引入物联网市场。

The goal of this project is to develop self-powered wireless sensors platforms capable of sensing a variety of physical parameters and transmitting these sensed data wirelessly without requiring an internal energy source. Use of energy stored in batteries or supplied by the electricity grid through wired connections for powering wireless sensor nodes are either impossible or prohibitively costly in many emerging applications such as Internet of Things where recharging and replacing batteries for large number of portable nodes is extremely challenging, harsh environment sensors where the required batteries that withstand such conditions are not available and wired connections are extremely expensive, and biomedical implants where replacement of batteries often requires surgeries. Energy required for the operation of these self-sufficient wireless nodes can be harvested from any of these or a multitude of these ambient sources: radio frequency (RF), kinetic or vibration, thermal, and solar. RF energy harvesting, the process of scavenging energy from ambient electromagnetic waves, is among the most viable options because of the availability of RF energy with predictable strengths in presence of wireless networks. Availability of such self-sufficient wireless sensors will enable scaling IoT sensor platforms to the levels that were not previously possible resulting in significant saving and process enhancement in many industrial and consumer applications. While previously our team has made great progress toward implementing building blocks of the proposed system including RF energy harvesters with record-breaking efficiencies and ultra-low-power wireless transceivers with built-in sensing capabilities, in this project we plan to integrate and implementn all these building blocks on a single chip to produce a low-cost self-powered wireless IoT sensor platform for widespread adoption in industrial and consumer applications. This proof-of-concept prototype will enable us to attract private/government investment to start up a company to bring this ground-breaking technology to the IoT market.