Toward augmented UHF RFID passive tags

The requirement of new functions for smart tags in the Internet of Things (IoT) deployment has raised the need of additional sources of energy. Among the possible energy sources, the natural or ecologic sources such as solar, motion, human body are of first interest. Another relevant approach is the use of wasted electromagnetic energy that can constitute a suitable powering source for low power consumption devices. Indeed, as it had demonstrated in practice the minimum required power to turn on UHF passive tags is the order of 10µW and several natural or green physical effects can provide much more power. In this context, the technology that best suits the requirements of enhanced functions and additional energy is the passive RFID technology, also due to its Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) operation. Therefore, in a society leaded by the information and networking, a link is defined between our real world and a virtual scenery for all the everyday objects. The linker device used in this paper is an RFID tag, that besides the identification function, it offers to enhance its powering and operation performances in applications such as sensing, authentication or location.