Powercast's Battery-Free RFID Sensor Condition Monitoring System Wins Best New Product at RFID Journal LIVE

The judges, led by founder and former RFIDJournal.com editor Mark Roberti, evaluated the six Best New Product finalists onsite at the RFID Journal LIVE! conference held May 6 - 8 in Las Vegas, NV, with the winner announced on May 8. As winner, Powercast will present a one-hour webinar later in 2025, and will also do a 40-minute conference session during the 2026 edition of RFID Journal LIVE!

"Considering the outstanding technology exhibited by the finalists, we are honored the judges chose our RFID-powered, wire-and-battery-free sensor monitoring system for data centers as the Best New Product 2025," said Charles Greene, Ph.D., COO and CTO of Powercast.

Roberti noted that all of the finalists had innovative products, but the judges were unanimous in selecting Powercast's energy harvesting, passive light, temperature and humidity sensor as it will open up new applications in health care, pharma, and the food supply chain, as well as managing data center assets.

"Instead of an expensive active tag with a battery that needs to be replaced every few years, companies can now use Powercast's low-cost passive sensor, which requires no maintenance," Roberti said. "And unlike other passive sensors, the Powercast product can write sensor data to the tag's memory, so companies can learn if a product was outside of temperature requirements at some point. We think this passive sensor will have many applications across several different industries."

Powercast collaborated with Asset Vue to customize its RFID sensing technology – known for maintenance-free monitoring because it can power itself perpetually from RAIN RFID inventory readers instead of wires and batteries – to monitor the temperature and humidity of mission-critical equipment stored on metal server racks without adding to the complexity of a data center.

Customizations included halving the size of Powercast's existing RFID sensors to fit into server racks, and redesigning the RF receiving antenna to avoid interference from the metal racks while still providing long range wireless power to the sensors. The system is currently in beta testing at Asset Vue's data center, and Powercast plans to roll it out later this year.

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.

How Powercast's RFID Condition Monitoring Technology Works, Leveraging RFID Readers as its Power Source:

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 meters 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.

Peel-back adhesive on the backs of the RFID sensor tags make them easy to install anywhere.

About Powercast
Powercast Corporation, founded in 2003 and based in Pittsburgh, PA, is the go-to resource for wireless charging solutions, ranging from short to long distances and from microwatts to kilowatts, with the industry's broadest technology portfolio backed by over 300 patents worldwide. We design, develop, and manufacture semiconductor chips as well as complete wirelessly powered products, enabling various levels of customer integration.
Powercast's solutions include RF power-over-distance charging, high-performance inductive charging systems, and low-power sensors with up to 25-year battery life. With flexible magnetic resonance systems, Powercast positions itself as the industry's most comprehensive source for wireless power technology. For more information, visit https://www.powercastco.com.

SOURCE Powercast