Battery-less long-range wireless fluidic sensing system using flexible additive manufacturing ambient energy...

Area of Science:

• Microfluidics
• Internet-of-Things (IoT)
• Additive Manufacturing

Background:

• Fluid sensing is crucial for IoT but faces challenges: high cost, limited range, interference, and power demands.
• Existing microfluidic systems are often bulky, expensive, and power-intensive, hindering widespread IoT integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a flexible, low-cost, and scalable fluid sensing system for ubiquitous IoT applications.
• To enable battery-less operation and extended wireless interrogation range for microfluidic devices.

Main Methods:

• Utilized additive manufacturing for flexible microfluidic fabrication, reducing time and cost.
• Integrated energy harvesting from ultra-high-frequency radio frequency identification (UHF-RFID) and two-way radios.
• Employed backscattering topologies for enhanced wireless communication range and interference immunity.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a battery-less microfluidic system powered by harvested energy.
• Achieved periodic monitoring every 6.6 minutes and on-demand monitoring within 4.63 seconds.
• Successfully interrogated a sweat sensing prototype at 3 meters with a 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio using low power.

Conclusions:

• The proposed additive manufacturing approach overcomes key challenges in fluid sensing for IoT.
• The flexible, energy-harvesting system offers a scalable, cost-effective solution for diverse applications, including wearables.
• This technology enables robust, long-range fluid analysis, expanding the reach of IoT sensor networks.