Next-generation (Next-G) wireless terminals need to sense their ambient and adapt to the diverse deployment scenario requirements on the fly while leveraging technology scaling. Several key circuit and system innovations are required to make the realization of this vision possible. We discuss how compressed sampling can be exploited to design a rapid, GHz-wide and energy-efficient interferer detector using a quadrature analog-to-information converter. A family of field-programmable receiver front ends demonstrating two linearity enhancement techniques including interferer-reflecting loops and hybrid Class-AB-C low noise transconductors is discussed. The technology scalable and out-of-band blocker robust switched-capacitor RF front end is then presented.

This article focuses on a new type of wireless devices in the domain between RFIDs and sensor networks—Energy-Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs). Future EnHANTs will be small, flexible, and self-powered devices that can be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked (e.g., books, furniture, toys, produce, and clothing). Therefore, they will provide the infrastructure for various tracking applications and can serve as one of the enablers for the Internet of Things. We present the design considerations for the EnHANT prototypes, developed over the past 4 years. The prototypes harvest indoor light energy using custom organic solar cells, communicate and form multihop networks using ultra-low-power Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) transceivers, and dynamically adapt their communications and networking patterns to the energy harvesting and battery states. We describe a small-scale testbed that uniquely allows evaluating different algorithms with trace-based light energy inputs. Then, we experimentally evaluate the performance of different energy-harvesting adaptive policies with organic solar cells and UWB-IR transceivers. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned during the prototype and testbed design process.

This paper focuses on a new type of wireless devices in the domain between RFIDs and sensor networks - Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs). Future EnHANTs will be small, flexible, and self-powered devices that can be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked (e.g., books, toys, clothing), thereby providing the infrastructure for novel tracking applications. We present the design considerations for the EnHANT prototypes, developed over the past 3 years. The prototypes harvest indoor light energy using custom organic solar cells, communicate and form multihop networks using ultralow-power Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) transceivers, and adapt their communications and networking patterns to the energy harvesting and battery states. We also describe a small scale EnHANTs testbed that uniquely allows evaluating different algorithms with trace-based light energy inputs.

Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs) are a new class of devices in the domain between RFIDs and sensor networks. EnHANTs will be small, flexible, and energetically self-reliant. Their development is enabled by advances in ultra-low-power ultra-wideband (UWB) communications and in organic semiconductor-based energy harvesting materials. In this demo, we present UWB-enabled EnHANT prototypes. Each prototype is based on a MICA2 mote integrated with a UWB Transceiver and an energy harvesting module (EHM) that allows demonstrating energy harvesting-adaptive communications. Additional information about EnHANTs is available at [2] and http://enhants.ee.columbia.edu.

Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs) will be a new class of devices in the domain between RFIDs and sensor networks. Small, flexible, and energetically self-reliant, EnHANTs will be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked, such as books, furniture, toys, produce, and clothing. More information about the EnHANTs project is available at http://enhants.ee.columbia.edu. In this demo we present a small network of EnHANT prototypes. The current EnHANT prototypes are integrated with novel custom in-house-developed energy harvesting and communications hardware, namely organic solar cells and ultra-wide-band impulse radio (UWB-IR) transceivers. The demo showcases prototypes communicating using the novel UWB-IR transceivers and adapting their communications and networking parameters to the available environmental energy harvested by the organic solar cells.