SBIR Phase II: Passive Radio for the Internet of Things

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to develop low-power, low-cost and small form factor wireless connectivity solutions, facilitating the deployment of inexpensive and long-lived wireless sensors and devices for a diverse set of applications. For instance, it is infeasible to place conventional sensors or wireless connectivity on low-cost or disposable items due to the high cost and short battery life of wireless communication devices. With the successful completion of this project, items ranging from consumer packaged goods to medical consumables and pill bottles could be connected to the Internet. Brands and manufacturers could gain previously inaccessible market and product insights based on the way products are used, while consumers could enjoy benefits ranging from new services and features (such as automated product reordering) to better-designed products which more closely fit their needs. By enabling new use cases for wireless connectivity, this technology can prompt innovation across many industries. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project introduces a new long-range backscatter-based communication technology based on Chirp Spread Spectrum, a wireless protocol which can be detected at extremely low signal levels. The low-power wireless system prior to this project is comprised of three elements: A passive backscatter-based radio, a first gateway device which provides an illumination signal, and a second gateway device which receives the resulting backscattered data and forwards data to the Internet. In this project, the passive backscatter-based radio will be implemented in an integrated circuit form, realizing the low power and low cost possible with this technology. The two gateway devices will be combined into one full-duplex radio device, to address the needs of the majority of deployment scenarios. Techniques to localize the backscatter radios within the field of the gateway device will be explored. Finally, security challenges will be addressed and the system will undergo extensive evaluation and testing.