Nanowerk March 16, 2022
Inspired by plants which disperse their seeds using the wind researchers at the University of Washington developed and demonstrated wind dispersal of battery-free wireless sensing devices. The millimetre-scale devices weigh 30 milligrams and were designed on a flexible substrate using programmable, off-the-shelf parts to enable scalability and flexibility for various sensing and computing applications. The system is powered using lightweight solar cells and an energy harvesting circuit that is robust to low and variable light conditions and has a backscatter communication link that enables data transmission. To achieve the wide-area dispersal and upright landing they developed thin-film porous structures that achieve a terminal velocity of 0.87 ± 0.02 metres per second and aerodynamic stability. In outdoor environments these devices could travel 50–100 metres in gentle to moderate breeze. To achieve dispersal variation across devices they modulated the porosity and diameter of the structures… read more. Video TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Wind-dispersed battery-free wireless devices. Credit: Nature (2022)Â