RFicient^® – Wireless, efficient, sustainable

The Internet of Things, IoT for short, connects devices so that they can exchange data with each other. In both private and industrial contexts, the number of such wirelessly connected devices is growing all the time. This consumes a lot of energy, and constantly having to change the battery leads to higher resource consumption.

The solution is the RFicient® chip, which successfully combines sustainability with economic efficiency. It adds a wake- up receiver to conventional sensor nodes and transfers all connected components from sleep mode into active mode as needed. Short switch-on times reduce power consumption by up to 99 percent. This increases the life span of conventional batteries from just one month to up to ten years. At the same time, the sensor node remains constantly receptive and requires only 30 milliseconds to respond to a signal. Real-time responses are guaranteed. This means that IoT receivers are always reachable, respond quickly and remain maintenance- free for extended periods.

The many years of work performed by Dr. Frank Oehler, Dr. Heinrich Milosiu, Dr. Markus Eppel and their development team earned them the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize 2022.