Evaluation of MOX Sensor Characteristics in Ultra-Low Power Operation Modes: Application to a Semi-Passive RFID Tag for Food Logistics

Most of the battery powered systems with integrated sensors need low power consumption modes to enlarge the operation time. In the case of the fruit logistic chain, the fruit quality may be controlled by the detection of some gases as ethylene, acetaldehyde and ammonia, that are related to maturation, oxygen stress and refrigeration leakage. We report the integration of an ultra-low power (ULP) metal oxide (MOX) sensor array inside a Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) 13.56 MHz ISO/IEC 15693 compliant tag with temperature, humidity and light sensors and data logging capabilities. Pulsed Temperature Operation (PTO), which consists in switching on and off the sensor heater, was used to reduce power consumption more than three orders of magnitude, from 14 mW down to 7 μW. The sensor behavior was characterized in terms sensitivity for ammonia.