Simultaneous Multifrequency Modulated Wireless Information and Power Transfer for a Triboelectronic Monitoring System

Ultrasound-driven triboelectric nanogenerators (US-TENGs) address energy supply challenges for implantable medical microsystems, underwater sensing and monitoring microsystems, etc., and are achieving increasingly important applications. In this work, multifrequency modulated simultaneous wireless power and information transmission (MF-SWIPT) technology is proposed for a US-TENG that allows both the power and information flows to be transmitted continuously without interruption. The deliberately optimized design traditionally allows complex multifrequency information demodulation circuits to consume only a few microwatts of power, making it possible to operate in the US-TENG system. Benefiting from this new architecture, the efficiency of information transmission is increased, with almost no reduction in the power transmission efficiency. The US-TENG-MF-SWIPT is demonstrated for underwater temperature monitoring microsystems and other applications; in addition to powering the microsystem for continuous operation, it is capable of transmitting information and text and further enables the modulation of microsystem operating parameters, such as alarm temperature thresholds. Therefore, US-TENG-MF-SWIPT technology will greatly enhance the energy sustainability and information interaction of these microsystems.