Energous Reference Designs Bring Sensor Tags to Wireless Power Systems
- The “over-the-air” power company is expanding its offerings to provide the necessary support for custom sensors and tags that could be powered and interrogated by the 2W PowerBridge.
- The goal is to expand sensor networks for companies such as retailers and food brands to areas where power may not be available – thereby creating a wider IoT view into goods and assets.
Leveraging its history in wireless power transmission, Energous is offering a wider-scope wireless IoT sensor solution, by now providing reference designs for 2.4 GHz asset tracking, including for use with smart tags.
The tags would be custom designed for specific applications —from tracking goods in the cold supply chain to assets moving around a facility. The reference design is aimed at sensor tags that could sustain unusual environments, meet specific form factors or share unique sensor data.
Such sensors and tags would be battery-free and energized wirelessly by Energous’ 2W PowerBridge transmitters. They could then share data back to the bridges which in turn forward digital information via Wi-Fi, Ethernet or cellular connection to a server.
A global retailer, which already had been using Energous 1W (one watt) PowerBridge transmitters, has adopted Energous’ 2W PowerBridge transmitters to capture sensor data about goods in one of its distribution centers as well as 170 grocery stores. The retailer’s goal, according to Energous, is to boost supply chain efficiency and inventory accuracy, without the high cost of battery-powered sensors or limitations of passive RFID.
Energous Expands its Offerings
By offering the reference design, Energous is pairing its wireless power transmission with IoT data, working initially with partners and customers to serve retail, transportation and logistics, and manufacturing applications. Companies are tracking where goods and assets are with a tag’s unique ID, but also in many cases are tracking real time sensor data—temperature and humidity.
Energous’ reference design will be commissioned by RFID tag companies as well as by some end users.
Existing asset tracking solutions are limited to locations where reader infrastructure is available, and typically depend on battery power for sensors, explained Dan Lawless, Energous’ SVP of systems operations and regulatory affairs. Energous’ PowerBridges are aimed at ending those limitations, able to be installed in locations that were out of view of many traditional IoT systems—transportation vehicles, at dock doors or in ports in the supply chain, or even while goods are still being manufactured.
2W PowerBridge Boosts Power transmission
The latest PowerBridge devices transmit two-watts of energy to area tags that then leverage the received energy to transmit a Bluetooth Low Energy response that could include the tag’s unique ID, but also any sensor data, said Lawless. “The PowerBridges are used for continuous streaming of sensor data from locations where wired technology isn’t feasible,” he said.
The proprietary antenna design enables it to transmit higher radiated power—up to 8W Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP)—and to offer dual polarization, which offers up to 99 percent visibility of all connected devices within range.
Depending on the use case, the PowerBridges can transmit the necessary power, and receive data from distances of 10 meters. But that distance varies according to the environment, the system application and how many might be used depending on granularity requirements.
Tracking Conditions in the Cold Chain
One application for the technology is management of a food supply chain for temperature sensitive products such as groceries.
“When handling sensitive items that are going to your grocery store,” Lawless said, users need to track the temperature of perishable food items not only in real-time, but when and where conditions fell outside of acceptable parameters.
That enables analytics as well, including machine learning and AI to begin tracking what trends lead to favorable or problematic outcomes. A factory may want to know where its supplies, ingredients or materials are even if they’re on their way to that production site. A food brand can view its products all the way to the store. These applications have increasingly been in demand as the technology evolves, company officials pointed out.
“The concept of wireless charging in general has been with the company since the beginning. But in recent years the focus has expanded to helping businesses get better data beyond what they had from their edge devices,” to include the entire life cycle of a food product, said Lawless.
Combining Functionalities
The company works with software providing partners, although it can also offer software for a specific application when needed. “There are places where our partners are quite involved already, and we have places where it makes sense for us to be the solution provider,” he said.
While some tech companies are offering wireless charging and others are providing asset tracking systems, Energous is one of the first to combine these functionalities. “We can’t frankly see anybody that has the intersection of it all,” Lawless said. The company has begun the first phase of deployment with several customers.
He anticipates that legislation such as the U.S. Food Traceability Rule known as FSMA 204 will fuel more technology adoptions. The FSMA rule goes into effect by 2026 and will require some food companies to prove the traceability of their products were, when and at what temperatures.
About Energous Wireless Power Solutions
Energous Corporation d/b/a Energous Wireless Power Solutions (NASDAQ: WATT) is pioneering scalable, over-the-air (OTA) wireless power networks that enable unprecedented levels of visibility, control, and intelligent business automation. The Company’s wireless power transmitter and receiver technologies deliver continuous access to wireless power, helping drive a new generation of battery-free devices for asset and inventory tracking and management—from retail sensors, electronic shelf labels, and asset trackers, to air quality monitors, motion detectors, and more. For more information, visit www.energous.com or follow on LinkedIn.
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Source: Energous Wireless Power Solutions