Demo: Energy Neutral Backscatter Device Utilizing High Performance Commercial Components

This demonstration presents an energy-autonomous ambient backscatter device that achieves full operational selfsufficiency by harvesting energy from ambient light. Unlike the 3GPP-defined Ambient Internet of Things (A-IoT) concept, which relies on RF-based energy harvesting and continuouswave illumination, our setup exploits existing LTE downlink signals as the communication carrier and leverages the user equipment (UE) channel estimator as the backscatter receiver. The prototype integrates a high-performance microcontroller unit (MCU) capable of executing complex signal processing tasks while maintaining energy neutrality through photovoltaic energy harvesting. Real-time power measurements demonstrate less than <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$30 \mu \mathrm{W}$</tex> consumption for communication, and the energy harvested suffices for continuous operation. This proof-of-concept validates the feasibility of light-powered, infrastructure-compatible ambient backscatter communication, representing a complementary and sustainable direction for 6 G A-IoT systems.