Self-powered wireless temperature sensors exploit RFID technology

Emerging RFID technology lets us embed sensors into a very small chip, creating a wireless sensing device. So, we set out to develop such a single-chip versatile temperature sensor. We also wanted to be able to transfer our design to an implantable temperature sensor for an animal healthcare application with minimal structural modification. We discuss the implementation of temperature sensor. The fully integrated complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) batteryless device measures temperature and performs calibration to compensate for the sensor's inherent imperfections. An RF link using passive RFID's backscattering technique wirelessly transmits the data to a reading device while extracting power from the same "airwave," letting the device operate anywhere and last almost forever. The entire microchip, including the temperature sensor, consumes less than a few microamperes over a half a second, so the scanning device can capture data from longer read distances.