학술논문

A Battery-Free Temperature Sensor With Liquid Crystal Elastomer Switching Between RFID Chips
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Access Access, IEEE. 8:87870-87883 2020
Subject
Aerospace
Bioengineering
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Computing and Processing
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Engineering Profession
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
General Topics for Engineers
Geoscience
Nuclear Engineering
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Robotics and Control Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Transportation
Temperature sensors
Temperature measurement
Integrated circuits
Monitoring
RFID tags
Switches
RFID temperature sensor
liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs)
passive RFID
multi-chip RFID antenna
bow-tie antenna
microstrip balun
Language
ISSN
2169-3536
Abstract
In this research, we have developed a novel temperature sensor to be utilized in the Cold-Supply-Chain (CSC) for perishable items. This sensor conveys temperature threshold crossings by switching operation between two individual RFID ICs, i.e., two individual Electronic Product Codes (EPCs). The advantage of this sensor compared to other existing technologies is that it can operate passively (i.e., battery-free) through multiple room-to-cold and cold-to-room temperature cycles, in real-time, without requiring any form of resetting. This design utilizes innovative cold-responsive liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), which change shape when stimulated by cold temperatures and returns to a relaxed state when the stimulus is removed. In fact, this is the first temperature sensor that conveys temperature threshold crossings by switching between two RFID ICs using LCEs. The correct operation of the sensor is validated by RFID measurements. ANSYS HFSS and ANSYS Circuit Designer were used for the simulation analysis. The performance of the proposed design was validated using simulations and measurements.