Patent ID: 9680533
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: H03L,H04B

Claim:
1. A radio-frequency (RF) sensor comprising: an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; one or more sensors for sensing; a backscatter communication interface to backscatter energy to communicate one or more packets using frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation, wherein the backscatter communication interface comprises a frequency synthesizer, a multiplexer, and a RF switch, and further wherein outputs of the frequency synthesizer are coupled to inputs of the multiplexer and an output of the multiplexer is coupled to an input of the RF switch, the RF switch to output data for transmission; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communication interface, the microcontroller operable to cause the backscatter communication interface to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested by the energy harvesting unit and stored by the storage unit.