RF-Powered Wireless Sensors

An article by Harry Ostaffe of Powercast was recently published in Industrial Embedded Systems.

The article is titled “Wireless power energizes wireless sensor networks”, and discusses how wireless power enabled by RF energy harvesting can provide a controllable and perpetual source of energy for wireless sensors.  The opening paragraphs are included below.

Battery replacement in wireless sensors is a key factor in limiting device location and scale. Through RF energy harvesting, wireless power can recharge wireless sensors remotely and eliminate battery replacement.

Wireless sensor applications and installations continue to grow as the technology evolves. The ability to add remote sensing points without the cost of running wires is resulting in numerous benefits, including energy and material savings, process improvements, and productivity increases.

Disposable, primary batteries typically supply the main power source for wireless sensors. Primary batteries are a readily available power source and have proven to be useful in many applications. However, with primary batteries as the source of power, sensor and component companies have had to focus on decreasing power consumption to overcome the objections of maintenance cost and disruption from repeated battery changes. The resulting benefit is that wireless sensors and protocols are now sufficiently low power as to be powered from sources of energy other than primary batteries.

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