Point to point communication exploits an ID code that can be assigned to every autonomous sensor with the aim of univocally individuating the device. This principle is implemented in RFID technology in particular. Nowadays several RFID communication standards exist, with different working ranges and data rates, which are applied to different applications.In this paper some autonomous sensors working without batteries are presented and discussed. A classification of autonomous sensors into ��passive autonomous sensors�� and ��self powered autonomous sensors�� is introduced. ��Passive autonomous sensors�� are defined those that are just passive elements, interrogated wirelessly by a readout unit. ��Self-powered autonomous sensors�� are those that have a power-harvesting module or are supplied power by an electromagnetic field.
In the next section the general architectures of passive and self-powered autonomous sensors are described and discussed.2.?Architectures of Autonomous SensorsA general architecture of a measurement system based on a passive autonomous sensor is shown in Figure 1. The passive autonomous sensor is the sensing element in the harsh or remote area, while the readout unit is placed in the safety zone. The two elements are connected by a wireless communication exploiting an electric-magnetic, optic or acoustic link. Between the sensing element and the readout unit there is usually a barrier whose characteristics (mainly material and geometry) influence the system’s performance. The sensing element is a passive device that does not require any power supply.
The quantity under measurement is usually seen as reflected impedance by the front-end electronics contained into the readout unit.Figure 1.Block diagram of a passive autonomous sensor.Some sensing devices can be classified as passive autonomous sensors: examples are quoted in [13, 25-32]. In [25] a NiFe sensor is associated to a remote magnetic transducer and provides a contactless temperature measurement with a readout distance of about 4 mm. In [26], LED based chemical sensors use passive elements constituted by chemical sensing materials placed in the harsh environment. These elements are remotely interrogated through transmittance and reflectance absorptiometric measurements. In [27] a magnetostrictive cantilever coupled with a bio-recognition element is remotely actuated and sensed using magnetic signals.
Most passive autonomous Dacomitinib sensors use a telemetric communication constituted by two inductors, one connected to the sensitive element (in the following referred as ��readout inductor��), and the other to the measuring circuit [13, 28, 30]. In [28] a system for environmental wireless monitoring consists of a LC sensor and two loop antennas (transmitter and receiver).