Triboelectric effect based instantaneous self-powered wireless sensing with self-determined identity

Sensors are the foundation of modern Internet of Things, artificial intelligent, smart manufacturing etc, but most of them require power to operate without spontaneous unique identifiable function. Herein we propose a novel instantaneous force-driven self-powered self-identified wireless sensor based on triboelectric effect to meet the huge demand of true self-powered wireless sensors. The device consists of a microswitch controlled triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) in parallel with a capacitor-inductor oscillating circuit, and a wireless transmitter. The system is fully powered by the output of the TENG to generate a resonant frequency containing sensing and device identity information, which is then coupled to the transmitter for realizing a long-range wireless communication. The device, with the multiple functions of energy harvesting, sensing, identity generation and wireless signal transmission, is a standalone device, which responds to each trigger without losing sensing information. It eliminates the requirement of electric components for traditional wireless communication, such as rectification circuit, energy storage units, microprocessor, wireless communication chip, etc. Thus, we developed a true self-powered identifiable wireless sensor with great potential for widespread applications.