A Wireless Motion Sensor Operating Down to −28-dBm Energy Harvesting

ZeroPower devices are the next generation of Internet of Things. Typically taping from ambient energy, or activated by a remote reader, their first and foremost challenge is the operation distance from the nearest RF source. Unfortunately, these systems can only be activated within a range of a few tens of meters due to their minimum activation power (also named reading sensitivity). This work reduces the harvesting power to a new threshold of −28dBm (
$1.5 \mu \text{W}$
). We demonstrate a wireless motion sensor operating in burst mode with as low as 120 mV of DC voltage and
$0.72 \mu \text{J}$
of stored energy. This efficient operation is achieved without any DC/DC conversion thanks to a four-stages rectifier biasing a tunnel diode Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO).