Powercast has collaborated with Asset Vue to customise Powercast’s RFID-powered, wire-and-battery-free sensor condition monitoring system to meet the needs of data centres.
RAIN RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology leverages the RFID readers used in inventory management, logistics and retail applications to connect to the Internet any item bearing an RFID tag, allowing users to identify and locate all such items. Adding Powercast’s wireless RF-energy-harvesting chips and sensors (temperature, humidity, light, etc.) to these RFID tags elevates their functionality beyond identification to enable real-time smart monitoring that results in smarter supply chains capable of locating live shipments, tracking the state of perishable goods and more, all without wires and batteries.
“Asset Vue wanted an affordable, maintenance-free asset monitoring system for its data center that didn’t require sensors to be hardwired or ongoing battery maintenance,” said Charles Greene, Ph.D., COO and CTO of Powercast. “They knew our technology did that, so they asked us to customise a system for them; specifically, they needed precise monitoring of extreme temperature and humidity to prevent failure of mission-critical equipment they store on metal server racks, and the ability to quickly locate tagged items on those crowded racks.”
Powercast provides engineering and productisation services where customisation is needed.
“We already have a ‘Find Tag’ feature with LEDs to easily locate equipment, but we modified our technology to meet Asset Vue’s other needs,” added Greene. “First, to keep equipment cool, we halved the size of our RFID tags to facilitate more airflow on the server racks. Second, because metal can diminish an RF signal and server racks are made of metal, we redesigned our RF receiving antenna to minimise interference from metal.” The system is currently in beta testing at Asset Vue, and Powercast plans to roll it out later this year.
Since standard RAIN RFID readers emit an RF signal that’s similar to that of Powercast’s RF wireless power transmitters, these readers can substitute for the transmitters, becoming the source of wireless power that perpetually powers the sensor tags without wires or batteries, eliminating the need/expense for hardwiring sensors, ongoing battery maintenance, or installing custom readers or RF transmitters.
Powercast’s Powerharvester PCC110 receiver chip embedded in the RFID sensor tags harvests RF and data sent over the air from any RFID reader within range, which can be up to 40 metres depending on the application. A single RFID reader can power many tags at once located over a large area as long as they’re within range. Readers can be fixed infrastructure installed in the ceiling, or handheld readers used by employees.
The Powerharvester chip then converts the RF to usable DC to both power the tags and communicate data. A microcontroller and sensors receive power, measure conditions, and report that data back to the reader.
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