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RF-Powered, PassiveWireless Sensor Tags and High-Function RFID Sensors Expo 2012 Chicago, IL (USA) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 1

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RFID Opportunity Overview• Basic tags are low-cost and pervasive• RFID chips are designed for range• High function tags are limited by power• Add-on power harvesting provides significantly more power for tags• More Power Greater Function, Higher Value www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 2

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RF Power SourcesIntentional Anticipated Unknown ? www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 3

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Perspective: Communication vs. Power RF Sensitivity of Wireless Devices CommunicationPower Requirement mA Passive RFID uA Wake-up Receiver Mobile phones, 0 - nA 802.15.4/ZigBee, Power Harvesting WiFi, Active RFID -100 -75 -50 -25 0 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 4

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Powerharvester® Receivers Convert RF input to DC current RF Power I/O Power/charge management Frequency range: 850-950MHz RF Power I/O RSSI and Data output Capacitor P1110 P2110• Continuous Power Output • Pulsed Power Output• Input power: -5 to 20 dBm • Input power: -12 to 15 dBm• Output voltage: up to 4.2V • Output voltage: up to 5.25V www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 5

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Powerharvester® Chipset / Reference DesignFeatures / Performance Output from 2 to 5V (higher with custom design) Wide tunable range: 1MHz to 6GHz RF harvesting down to around -12dBm input Small footprint: 0.2 in2 / 1.3 cm2 Low BOM Cost RF Harvesting Circuit • Powercast chipset (3 custom ICs) • 20-25 other discrete components www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 6

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RFID Tag Power RequirementsPower Sensors Computation Screen Update Memory Access ID read ID Memory High-Function Tag Tag Tag www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 7

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Power Harvesting for High-Function RFID Sensor High-Function Tag Tags • Identification • Sensors Biometric • Processing Proximity • Biometrics Cards • Bi-stable displays • Battery charging • Low-power radioRFID / Access Control • LEDsReader ePaper • Audio Signs / Labels Powercast receivers provide 10X power efficiency vs. RFID chips www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 8

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RF-power for Bi-Stable DisplaysColor Indicators Small Displays Large Displays Sources: adt GmbH, Vanguard ID Systems, Tego, Pervasive Displays www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 9

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850MHz Bandwidth P2110 Normalized Efficiency -3dBm (500uW) Input 1.2 1Normalized Efficiency 0.8 0.6 ±20% over 850MHz 0.4 0.2 0 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700 Frequency (MHz) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 10

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Wide Input Power Range for Short & Long Distance 80 P1110 - 915MHz, 3VRF-to-DC Conversion Efficiency (%) 70 P2110 - 915MHz, 1.05V Power 60 50 40 30 20 10 Distance 0 Anticipated RFID range -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 11

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Harvested Power @ 915MHz 60 P1110 - 915MHz, 3V 50Harvested Power (mW) 40 30 20 Anticipated RFID range 10 0 P2110 - 915MHz, 1.05V -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 12

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Harvested Power @ 915MHz 1 P1110 - 915MHz, 3V 0.8Harvested Power (mW) 0.6 0.4 0.2 P2110 - 915MHz, 1.05V 0 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 13

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P1110/P2110 Hybrid for RFID Charge Time for Sustained 3V Regulated Output 16 14 12 Charge Time (sec) 10 8 0dBi Rx antenna @ 2m 6 0.35mW 1dBi Rx antenna @ 1m 4 2 1.8mW 0 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Input Power (dBm)Charge time based on 4W RFID reader charging 1000uF capacitor www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 14

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Passive Wireless Sensor Tag Demo P2110 RF Powerharvester Radio moduleSuperCap Microcontroller Sensors Temp/Humidity/Light www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 15

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Productized PWST Operated at 80 feet from 3W Tx withOmni-Directional 6dBi directional RxRx antenna antenna(WSN-1002) (WSN-1001) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 16

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Sensor Tag Development ToolCredit card Programmingform factor interface Charging Silicon Labs capacitor Wireless MCU 915MHzRF Powerharvester Data Antenna 915MHz Power Antenna www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 17

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915MHz(ft.) vs. AverageSensor Tag Distance (UHF) Current Delivered (uA) 10000 Charge Current @ 4.0V 1000Average Current (uA) 100 Average current (uA) 4.0 10 1 2uA @ 15 feet from 3W Tx 0.1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Distance (ft) Distance (ft.) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 18

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13.56MHz (HF RFID) – Efficiency 45 1.2V 40 35 30Efficiency (%) 1V 2V 25 20 >25% Conversion Efficiency for harvested power before voltage boost 15 10 Based on preliminary designs 5 using P2110 circuit architecture 0 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 19

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13.56MHz (HF RFID) – Harvested Power 7 Preliminary designs support charging 2V 6 range of inches to several feetHarvested Power (mW) 5 1.2V 4 1V 3 2 1 0 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Input Power (dBm) www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 20

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Summary• Great opportunities for high-function RFID• RF power harvesting is a key enabler• Core RF circuit design can support HF and UHF www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 21

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Powercast Resrouces• Documentation – http://www.powercastco.com/resources/• Wireless power calculator (Excel) – http://www.powercastco.com/power-calculator/• Videos and Presentations – http://www.youtube.com/powercastco – http://www.slideshare.net/powercastEmerging P2100 TX91501 P2110 P2110Technology Powerharvester® Powercaster® Powerharvester® Powerharvester® www.powercastco.com ©2012 Powercast Corporation 22