Photovoltaic-powered sensors for the “internet of things”

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Photovoltaic-powered sensors for the “internet of things”

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MIT researchers have designed photovoltaic-powered sensors that could potentially transmit data for years before they need to be replaced.
To do so, they mounted thin-film perovskite cells — known for their potential low cost, flexibility, and relative ease of fabrication — as energy-harvesters on inexpensive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.
The cells could power the sensors in both bright sunlight and dimmer indoor conditions.
Moreover, the team found the solar power actually gives the sensors a major power boost that enables greater data-transmission distances and the ability to integrate multiple sensors onto a single RFID tag.
In a pair of papers published in the journals Advanced Functional Materials and IEEE Sensors, MIT Auto-ID Laboratory and MIT Photovoltaics Research Laboratory researchers describe using the sensors to continuously monitor indoor and outdoor temperatures over several days.
The sensors transmitted data continuously at distances five times greater than traditional RFID tags — with no batteries required.
In recent attempts to create self-powered sensors, other researchers have used solar cells as energy sources for internet of things (IoT) devices.
The traditional cells can be efficient, long-lasting, and powerful under certain conditions “but are really infeasible for ubiquitous IoT sensors,” Kantareddy says.
They’re also really only designed to efficiently harvest energy from powerful sunlight, not low indoor light.
Perovskite cells, on the other hand, can be printed using easy roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques for a few cents each; made thin, flexible, and transparent; and tuned to harvest energy from any kind of indoor and outdoor lighting.
Traditionally, the tags harvest a little of the radio-frequency energy sent by the reader to power up a little chip inside that stores data, and uses the remaining energy to modulate the returning signal

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