Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Power consumption of wireless sensor nodes is a key limiting factor towards battery-free operation of thesex000D
sensors.x000D
Wavelite addressees this problem by leveraging back-scattering concepts in wireless communications.x000D
Wavelite makes backscatter communication possible using conventional WiFi devices in which the carrierx000D
wave is recycled from WiFi signals of an existing WiFi device such that another conventional WiFi devicex000D
receives the backscattered signal. Wavelite technology intends to reduce the practical power consumption ofx000D
the sensor's communication component node in a range between hundreds of micro-Watts to a few milli-Wattsx000D
to enable the use of micro power harvesting solutions. To achieve this goal, various innovative hardwarex000D
implementations of WiFi backscattering systems must be explored. As part of this project, we intend to 1)x000D
investigate various methodologies to reduce the power consumption of existing low power backscatteringx000D
nodes, and 2) explore power harvesting techniques that are suitable for the backscatter technology. Based onx000D
simulations and analysis, several solutions pertaining to low-power off-the-shelf components, ASIC orx000D
re-configuration of the digital system to achieve these goals will be explored. In addition, several harvestingx000D
techniques will be tested and adapted to the required low-power context.