Performance Evaluation of a Long-Range RFID Tag Powered by a Vibration Energy Harvester

This letter reports the characterization procedure of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag powered by a microelectromechanical system vibration energy harvester (VEH). The tag antenna and its matching interface to the RFID chip are designed with the help of an electromagnetic simulator. The energy provided by the VEH is stored in a reservoir capacitor and released through a mechanical switch to the tag. It is demonstrated that the tag can communicate with a reader at a distance up to 15 m when powered by the VEH working with an acceleration of 2 g rms and 100 Hz. The energy delivered by the VEH within 100 s can sustain up to six tag readings using the EPC Gen-2 Class-1 standard.