Application of Smart Materials to Wireless ID Tags and Remote Sensors

Abstract

ABSTRACTMaterial structures having an electromagnetic or magnetomechanical resonance can be excited or detected remotely using an antenna. Incorporating smart materials into such structures provides new opportunities to encode ID and sensor information in the electromagnetic signature of the “tag.” In this way, it is possible to create tags which not only have a unique ID but which can also respond to local changes in their environment (e. g. force, temperature, light, etc.). This principle forms the basis for a low-cost wireless ID and wireless sensor technology which has many potential applications in manufacturing, inventory control, security, surveillance, and new human-computer interfaces. As a means of illustrating this concept, two simple examples are given: a force sensor incorporating a piezoelectric polymer and a relative position sensor which incorporates a magnetoelastic amorphous metal ribbon.