Powercast, InPlay Partner on Battery-Free BLE Sensor Beacon with a 120-Foot Power Transmission Range
A combination of high-efficiency BLE SoC and a long-range power transmitter means the future of the IoT could be truly wireless.
Wireless power specialist Powercast and Bluetooth sensor expert InPlay have announced a team-up to create a battery-free Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensor beacon that can operate on power transmitted over the air alone — at a range of over 120 feet.
"Powercast's and InPlay's technologies combine to make every microwatt of power count in efficient and green IoT [Internet of Things] networks powered over the air, now at unprecedented distances, without batteries," claims Powercast chief executive Charles Goetz. "Together we are advancing the IoT, creating the opportunity for new battery-free sensor types, low-power intelligent endpoints, and smart tracking tags used in retail, asset tracking and industrial sensing."
The live demonstration at the Sensors Converge expo in San Jose this week saw an InPlay IN100 sensor, built around the company's NanoBeacon technology and designed for real-time location monitoring or as a gateway to additional hardware for environmental sensing and more, powered entirely wirelessly from a Powercast PowerSpot transmitter over 120 feet away — half again as far as the company's previously-tested 80 feet transmissions.
"Maintaining billions of battery-powered IoT devices in the field is an expensive challenge, but with Powercast's technology, our customers can design battery-free wireless sensors to avoid downtime and maintenance issues," says InPlay co-founder and chief executive. "Our technology is already easy and affordable to deploy vs. traditional RFID deployments which normally require technical experts. Now customers can also eliminate battery maintenance, and monitor more asset conditions when adding sensors to the system."
According to Powercast, the breakthrough comes courtesy of the company's PCC110 Powerharvester chip and PCC210 boost converter, which work together to harvest energy from radio-frequency transmissions with a claimed 75 per cent efficiency. The extreme range is aided by the IN100's ability to tailor its transmission rate according to available power — reducing the frequency of transmissions when far away from the power transmitter and increasing it as it comes closer, if the payload requires it.
Powercast and InPlay are both demonstrating their respective technologies at Sensors Converge this week, in Booth #641 and #333 respectively. More information is available on the Powercast and InPlay websites.
