The tiny sensor developed by the Eindhoven University of Technology isn’t much to look at.
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The arrival of such sensors is an important development on route towards smart buildings, for instance, but the applications are various, said the team from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands in a university statement. The router’s directional antennae send radio waves to the sensor so it can stay powered indefinitely.
Similar sensors could be used to make smart buildings more energy efficient, the university said in a blog post. “Like heating and lighting that only switches on when someone is in the room”.
Lead researcher Hao Gao, “That is only possible if these sensors are wireless and need no batteries otherwise in a large building, you would have to change the batteries every day”.
The current version of the sensor has an operating range of only 2.5 cm (1 in), but it’s hoped that this will be extended to a meter (3 ft) in a year and ultimately to 5 m (16 ft). Since this energy transfer is accurately targeted at the sensor, the router consumes very little electricity. When the sensor is exposed to radio waves, it absorbs the energy until it stores enough to transmit a signal back to the router. The router can then deduce the temperature based on that signal. The frequency of the transmitted signal relates to the measured temperature. With a mass production cost projected at about 20 cents, TU/e sees a wide range of applications for the wireless sensors, including payment systems, wireless ID, smart buildings, and industrial applications.
The sensor can operate beneath a layer of paint, plastic or concrete – making it ideal for incorporation into buildings.
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This particular sensor would be as light as a grain of sand, where it can be “painted” into walls so that it can help to monitor temperature, light, movement, or humidity levels. The integrated circuits research was done in the Mixed-Signal Microelectronics group and also involved the TU/e groups Electromagnetics and Signal Processing Systems as well as the Center of Wireless Technology.
