Abstract
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensors, integrating the features of Wireless Information and Power Transfer (WIPT), object identification and energy efficient sensing capabilities, have been considered a new paradigm of sensing and communication for the futuristic information systems. RFID sensor tags featuring contactless sensing, wireless information transfer, wireless powered, light weight, non-line-of-sight transmission, flexible and pasteable are a critical enabling technology for future Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, agriculture and food. They have attracted numerous research efforts due to their innovative potential in the various application fields. However, there has been a gap between the in-lab investigations and the practical IoT application scenarios, which has motivated this survey of this research to identify the promising enabling techniques and the underlying challenges. This study aims to provide an exhaustive review on the state-of-art RFID sensor technologies from the system implementation perspective by focusing on the fundamental RF energy harvesting theories, the recent technical progresses and commercial solutions, innovative applications and some RFID sensor based IoT solutions, identify the underlying technological challenges at the time being, and give the future research trends and promising application fields in the rich sensing applications of the forthcoming IoT era.
Highlights
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, as a key enabling technique of the Internet of Things (IoT) sensing layer finds applications in a wide spectrum of fields for data integration and management, including human identification, logistics and retail, access control, parking management, indoor localization, etc. [1,2,3]
It is easy to find that: (1) RFID sensors of different types, including HF, Ultra-high Frequency (UHF), and chip-less RFID devices have been widely used and integrated with cutting-edge technologies in different fields in recent years. This has been an effective and cost-efficient means for accessing sensing data in a battery-less, wireless, and passive way, which were significant technical challenges before RFID was invented; (2) The RFID technique, as a power and communication interface in sensor solutions, is easy to integrate with other sensing modules with different processes, including inkjet printing, CMOS, flexible
Based on the survey of the state-of-the-art studies, it is found that: (1) RFID sensors are an effective and cost-efficient means for accessing sensing data in a battery-less, wireless, and passive way, which were technical challenges before RFID was invented, and they will play an important role in the future; (2) RFID sensor technology integrates sensing techniques and RFID with many cutting-edge techniques, including CMOS, flexible PCB, inkjet-printed electronics, etc
Summary
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, as a key enabling technique of the Internet of Things (IoT) sensing layer finds applications in a wide spectrum of fields for data integration and management, including human identification, logistics and retail, access control, parking management, indoor localization, etc. [1,2,3]. Due to the convenience of RFID sensing techniques, they have attracted many research efforts in the recent years and plenty of exemplary novel applications can be found in the literature They have been widely applied in industry for the sensing of temperature and humidity [9], strain [10], pressure [11], steel corrosion and cracks [12], concrete structure [13], pipeline integrity monitoring [14], etc. The above reasons have motivated this review work to report the state-of-the-art in RFID sensor technical solutions, the recent technical progress, the technical challenges, and to forecast the direction of future investigations in the rich sensing applications of the forthcoming IoT era.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
