IoT sensor node design with NFC data communication using off-the-shelf components

Near-field communication (NFC) technology was introduced and specified for short-range wireless connectivity during the first decade of the 21st century. It allows the exchange of information wirelessly between two radio frequency identification (RFID) compatible devic-es. In addition to its widespread use in mobile payments, data transfer, secure access con-trol, digital authorization, and authentication, the NFC protocol has expanded its applicabil-ity to wearable medical devices. Recent advances in integrated electronics have enabled battery-free operations by optimizing the power efficiency of medical devices and implants. These gadgets absorb energy from their surroundings and store data on-chip memory for later retrieval. This project describes the development of an internet-of-things (IoT) sensor node utilizing an Arduino-based NFC system to transmit pre-recorded data using the NFC handshake protocol. A sensor node hardware platform is conceived with battery operated power man-agement block and built to sense and store environmental data with timestamps in the local memory. The validation of the platform's functionality enables the formulation of specifica-tions to design an on-chip NFC communication block. The work further contributes to the development of self-powered medical sensor nodes based on the IoT employing printed integrated circuit technology. The project is managed by Professor Kari Halonen's research group at the research and development (R&D) facilities of Aalto University