Power Management Strategies for Battery-driven Higher Class UHF RFID Tags Supported by Energy Harvesting Devices

The next generation of RFID tags (higher class tags -HCT) especially in the UHF frequency range provides extended functionality like high operating range and sensing and monitoring capabilities. Such functionality requiring extended system structures including data acquisition units, real time clocks and active transmitters causes a high energy consumption of the tag and requires an on board energy store (battery). As a key parameter of the reliability of an RFID system is the lifetime, the energy budget of the HCT has to be as balanced as possible. The PowerTag1 project and thus this paper deals with proposing special power management algorithms in combination with the use of energy harvesting devices to support the on board battery and thus to extend the lifetime of the HCT contemporary providing high level computational functionality.