Ultra-Low-Power Backscattering Communication for Energy-Harvesting IoT Applications

To enable smart, batteryless devices relying on weak energy harvesting sources, ultra-low-power operation and communication are crucial. Therefore, this work studies the power requirements and power management to enable backscattering communication by means of an off-the-shelf STM32 microcontroller. Through hardware and software optimizations, the prototype IoT device demonstrates how a temperature measurement can be performed and transmitted, requiring less than 60 μJ of energy. Finally, the lab setup proves the ability to receive and demodulate the backscattered signal at a range of up to 10 m.