Leveraging RF Power for Intelligent Tag Networks

A novel framework and related methodologies are described to leverage RF power for building intelligent and battery-free devices with communication and computation capabilities. These passive devices are envisioned to make significant impact for the popular vision of smart dust due to extreme low power operation. The communication framework relies on tag-to-tag backscattering with very limited energy resources. The computing framework relies on a novel AC computing methodology that facilitates local data processing with an order of magnitude less power consumption. These enabling technologies, as described in this paper, revitalize the concept of smart dust with significant impact on various application domains such as smart spaces, implantable devices, and environmental/structural monitoring.