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Stanford develops a radio the size of an ant, draws power from electromagnetic waves
SourceWhat is this? A radio for ants? Not so much for ants, but it’s certainly the size of an ant. Stanford engineer Amin Arbabian has managed to create a wireless radio just a few millimeters across that is so energy efficient that it doesn’t need a battery. Instead, it harvests power from the incoming electromagnetic waves. The extremely low cost and small size of this technology means you could soon be surrounded by tiny radio chips in an interconnected mesh network.
The Stanford radio chip is designed to compute, execute, and relay signals. What sets this technology apart is that it all happens on a single chip that doesn’t rely on any exotic materials or theoretical principles. Arbabian sees this chip as the possible missing link in the so-called Internet of Things. If you want your lightbulbs to be connected to your other devices, you don’t need a high-power wireless radio–this one would do just fine. It uses so little power a single AAA battery could power it for more than 100 years.
A Guy