Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

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Nano Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nanoen

Triboelectric nanogenerator-enabled fully self-powered instantaneous

wireless sensor systems
Chi Zhang a, b, Jinkai Chen c, Weipeng Xuan c, Shuyi Huang a, b, Lin Shi a, b, Zhen Cao a, b,
Zhi Ye a, b, Yubo Li a, b, d, Xiaozhi Wang a, b, Shurong Dong a, b, Andrew J. Flewitt e, Hao Jin a, b, *,
Jikui Luo a, b, *
a
College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
b
International Joint Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China
c
Ministry of Education Key Lab. of RF Circuits and Systems, College of Electronics & Information Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China
d
Research Institute of Zhejiang University-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518057, China
e
Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FA, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an important and essential role in modern society. However, the
TENG requirement for huge distributed energy for sensors and wireless transmission modules has become a bottleneck
Self-powered sensor in the development of WSNs. Various energy harvesting technologies have been explored for developing self-
Tire pressure monitoring
powered sensors, however they either need a long duration for energy collection and storage, leading to not
Wireless senor
Resonant circuit
real-time sensing, or require additional power sources to run the WSNs. Here we report a novel triboelectric
nanogenerator (TENG)-based fully self-powered instantaneous wireless sensor system. TENG is integrated with
an RLC sensing circuit, enabling spontaneous generation of oscillating signal with encoded sensing information.
Additionally, by using an electronic switch, the frequency and amplitude of the signal become extremely stable
and immune to the environmental variations. An innovative impedance-modulated signal analysis method is also
developed to extract the sensing information for resistive, capacitive as well as inductive types of sensors. The
sensor system is then applied for real-time tire pressure and speed monitoring for a bicycle. Results showed that
the self-powered wireless tire pressure sensor system is able to monitor tire pressure and speed of the bicycle,
with a resolution of 5.5 kPa and a precision of about 97% respectively, demonstrating its excellent potential for
general applications.

1. Introduction normally distributed in a broad area or in remote or harsh environments

Nowadays, the Internet of things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs) containing a large number of sensors have attracted vast
attention from researchers and industries [1–5]. They have been widely
used in various fields, such as smart home [6,7], intelligent
manufacturing [8,9], and healthcare [10–15] etc. The foundation and
core technology for both the IoT and WSNs are the millions of micro­
sensors that are used to collect a vast amount of information, which are
then transmitted wirelessly for signal processing and information
extraction [16,17]. One critical issue for IoTs and WSNs is how to power
the large number of microsensors efficiently. Although battery-based
power sources are still the choice for the applications, they are not
efficient and effective, and are often not possible because the sensors are
that are not easy to access for replacement and maintanance [18,19]. In
order to solve this problem, a variety of energy harvesting technologies
have been explored as the energy sources to power wireless sensor
networks on the sites, including techniques to harvest solar energy [20],
mechanical energy [21] and acoustic energy [22] etc. As an emerging
energy harvesting technology, nanogenerators have the ability to
convert residual heat energy and abundant mechanical energy from
environments into electric energy, and have received great attention for
applications in WSNs and IoTs. According to the mechanisms, they can
be classified into four types: piezoelectric [23–26], thermoelectric
[27–29], electromagnetic [30–32] and triboelectric nanogenerators
(TENG) [33–36]. Among them, the triboelectric nanogenerator has the
advantages of high energy output and conversion efficiency, readily

* Corresponding authors at: College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
E-mail addresses: hjin@zju.edu.cn (H. Jin), jackluo@zju.edu.cn (J. Luo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2021.106770
Received 9 October 2021; Received in revised form 6 November 2021; Accepted 21 November 2021
Available online 24 November 2021
C. Zhang et al.
available materials, easy fabrication processes and low-cost, thus has the
application potential for the self-powered wireless sensor networks.
The self-powered sensors based on TENG are normally divided into
two categories according to the roles played by the TENG in the sensing
systems. One is to directly use the electric output of TENG as the sensing
parameter (i.e., TENG acts as a sensor), while the other one is to scav­
enge and store energy, and then use the harvested energy to power the
sensor system (i.e., TENG acts as a power source). For the former case,
the TENG sensor itself generates electrical signal outputs without
needing a power supply, but other electronic components in the sensor
system still need power to operate; examples are the pressure sensing
[37,38], chemical sensing [39], and vibration sensing [40] etc. This type
of devices are not real self-powered sensing systems, and the name of
self-driving sensors may be more appropriate. For the latter case, the
sensing system can not be used for real-time sensing, because it takes a
certain period of time for the TENG to collect enough energy to power
the whole sensor system; examples are the TENG-based radio frequency
(RF) transmission system [41], health monitoring system [42], and
temperature and humidity sensing system [43], etc.
Recently, our group has developed a new type of TENG-based self-
powered instantaneous wireless sensor systems that are able to directly
convert the TENG output voltage into oscillating signal with encoded
sensing information and to transmit the signals wirelessly [44–48]. This
type of fully self-powered wireless sensing systems have the advantages
of very high energy utilization efficiency, simple and low cost sensing
system, instantaneous and real-time sensing, wireless capability etc.,
opened up the avenue for widespread applications of the self-powered
sensors for WSNs and IoTs. In this type of wireless sensing systems, a
contact-mode micro-mechanical switch is typically used to increase the
amplitude of the oscillating signal with encoded sensing information,
Fig. 1. Resistive type sensor based self-powered sensing system. (A) Schematic of the impedance modulation self-powered instantaneous wireless sensing system. (B)
Two typical transmitted oscillating signals of the system for the sensor to have two different resistances of 75 kΩ and 30 kΩ respectively. (C) Schematic structure of
the TENG using PA6 and PDMS membranes as the positive and negative triboplates respectively.
2
Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770
hence increase the wireless transmission distance up to several meters.
However, the contact-mode micro-mechanical switches often have an
inherent signal jittering problem, which causes instability, multiple
output and inconsistent amplitude of the oscillating signals due to the
non-parallel contacts of the micro-mechanical switch. Furthermore, the
influences of the environmental conditions (humidity, temperature, or
pressure, etc.) and TENG operating conditions (force, frequency, or
spacer distance, etc.) also affect the stability, reliability, and accuracy of
the self-powered sensor systems.
Here we report on further development of the TENG-based self-
powered instantaneous wireless sensor system. By replacing the micro-
mechanical switch (M-switch for simplicity hereafter) with an elec­
tronic switch (E-switch for simplicity), very stable output signals with
constant amplitude are obtained wirelessly. Furthermore, by utilizing
the E-switch and impedance variation of a sensor, a self-powered
impedance modulated instantaneous wireless sensor system with a
novel signal energy-based analysis method is developed. Results show
that both the signal amplitude and resonant frequency of the oscillating
signals become very stable, suitable for high precision and long-distance
wireless sensing. The impedance modulated wireless sensing method is
applied for self-powered wireless tire pressure monitoring. The pressure
sensor system demonstrates its excellent capability to measure and
display the real-time precise tire pressure and speed of the vehicle
wirelessly, and shows its usefulness and potential for application.
2. Experimental section
2.1. Principle and methodology
Fig. 1A illustrates the schematic structure of the TENG-based self-
C. Zhang et al.
powered instantaneous sensor system. It was composed of a transmitting
module which consisted of a contact-separation mode TENG, an E-
switch and a transmitter, and a receiving module which consisted of an
inductor coil L2, an analog-digital (AD) convertor, a microcontroller unit
(MCU) and a liquid crystal displayer (LCD). The E-switch consisted of a
peak voltage detector (PVD) with a trigger voltage of 0.5 V, a diode D1 to
prevent charge back flow and a Zener diode, ZD, to clamp the output
voltage with a fixed voltage, and a MOSFET, Q, to control discharge of
the TENG. The inductor L1, capacitor C1 and resistor R1 form the
transmitter, a parallel resonant RLC tank. A series of pulsed voltage
signals is generated when the TENG is under repeated pressing by
external force such as machinery vibration, and each pulsed voltage
signal is converted into an oscillating signal (transmitting signal) with
an attenuating amplitude through the parallel resonant RLC tank. A
resistive sensor, or a capacitive sensor or an inductive sensor could be
integrated in the transmitter to replace the corresponding component in
the RLC tank, so that the sensing information can be encoded in the
oscillating signal for wireless sensing. As such, the frequency and en­
velope of the oscillating signal encoded with the sensing information is
determined by the RLC tank. It should be clearly pointed that both the E-
switch and transmitter are powered solely by the TENG, i.e., it is a fully
self-powered sensor system even though electronic components were
used. For the receiver terminal, an inductor L2 was used to receive the
transmitted signal containing sensing information and the received
signal was then processed by the MCU with the results displayed at the
terminal such as an LCD or a PC.
By using the specifically designed E-switch, the energy output of
TENG could be coupled into the RLC tank only when the voltage reaches
its maximum value, which results in high energy transfer efficiency
between the TENG and RLC tank. The energy transferred from TENG to
the RLC tank takes place in a very short time, typically in a few hundreds
of nanoseconds. After the energy transfer is completed, the RLC tank
starts to generate an oscillating voltage signal with the E-switch being
disconnected from the RLC tank simultaneously by turning off the
MOSFET Q1. Thus, TENG and E-switch have no influence on the oscil­
lating voltage signal and sensing parameters.
The initial voltage of the oscillating signal is proportional to the
voltage output of the TENG used. It is well observed that the outputs of
TENGs varies significantly or jumps up and down randomly during
operation [49]. If the varying outputs of TENG are used to generate
oscillating signals for sensing, it would make the self-powered sensing
unstable and inaccurate. To have a constant initial amplitude of the
oscillating signal, a bidirectional Zener Diode, ZD, is connected with the
RLC tank in parallel to clamp the output voltage at a fixed value, VZD
= 50 V for the Zener diode used in this work. It should be pointed that
the clamp voltage could be changed according to applications and
transmission distances by using Zener diodes with different clamping
voltages.
Furthermore, we have developed a new type of impedance-
modulated wireless sensing method by utilizing a resistive type sensor,
R1, for sensing, which could promote more and broader applications,
upon the capacitive sensing demonstrated in our previous work [46].
From our experiments, it was found that the envelope of the oscillating
signal was influenced by resistance of the sensor in the RLC circuit, and
it can be utilized for wireless sensing. Fig. 1B shows two typical trans­
mitted voltage waveforms with R1 = 75 kΩ and R1 = 30 kΩ respec­
tively, showing the amplitude modulation capability that could be
utilized as a sensing parameter. Details will be discussed later.
2.2. Materials and methods
Similar to our previous work [46], a contact-separation mode TENG
was used in this study as shown in Fig. 1C. The TENG consisted of a
positive tribo-material of polyamide-6 (PA6) and a negative
tribo-material of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). PDMS prepolymer and
cross-linker agent (184 Silicone Elastomer) were purchased from Dow
3
Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770
Corning, and PA6 membranes with a thickness of 100 µm were pur­
chased from Dupont. The PDMS prepolymer and cross-linker agent were
mixed in a weight ratio of 10:1 and then the mixture was spin-coated on
clean glass substrates with a rotation speed of 1200 rpm for 10 s to
obtain the PDMS membranes. Finally, the PDMS-coated glass substrates
were cured on a hot plate at 105 ◦ C for 60 min, which resulted in a
thickness of the PDMS films of about 100 µm. Two pieces of polylactic
acid (PLA) plates printed by a 3D printer (JG Aurora, A-8S) were used as
the support substrates and they had a dimension of 55 mm × 55 mm
× 3 mm. Firstly, A piece of PA6 film (40 mm × 40 mm) and a PLA plate
were attached together using a double-side adhesive nickel tape to form
the positive tribo-plate. Similarly, the negative tribo-plate consisted of a
piece of PDMS (40 ×mm 40 mm) film being attached to a PLA plate
using the nickel tape as the electrode. The nickel tapes were used as the
electrodes for both the tribo-plates. Then, the two tribo-plates were
assembled with two 5 mm thickness sponges between them as the spacer
to form the TENG device. Typical output characteristics of this TENG
with and without an E-switch are shown in Fig. S1 in Supplementary
Note 1.
A linear motor (H01-48 ×250) was utilized to control the cyclic
contact force, frequency, and distance. The output voltage of the TENG
was measured using an oscilloscope (Tektronix MDO3022). Four copper
transmitting coils with outer diameter of 4.2 mm and inner diameter of
3.8 mm were used in this work and they had inductance of 0.5 mH,
1 mH, 1.5 mH and 2 mH respectively. The diameter of the copper wires
was 0.3 mm for the coils.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Sensing signal generation
Generally, the output impedance of TENGs is very large, while
transmitter coils have very small input impedance. The severe imped­
ance mismatch between the TENG and the transmitter coil will cause
substantial energy loss when the TENG is coupled to the coil directly. To
reduce this energy loss, it is necessary to reduce the output impedance of
TENG. Our previous work indicated that by integrating a synchronized
M-switch with TENG, the output impedance of TENG can be reduced
drastically, which enables to generate much stronger oscillating signal,
once the energy from the TENG is coupled into the LC resonant circuit
[44,46]. As mentioned above, signal jittering is the inherent problem of
the M-switch integrated in the TENG, the stability of the oscillating
signal will be reduced, and signal amplitude is not constant, making
reliable and accurate sensing difficult. In order to solve these issues, the
M-switch was replaced by an E-switch, which consisted of a diode D1
(Diodes Incorporated, 1N4007) and a MOSFET (Fairchild Semi­
conductor, FQD2N60C) controlled by the peak voltage detector as
shown in Fig. 2A. Below, we will analyze how the oscillating signal is
produced in detail for the case of L1 = 1.5 mH and C1 = 100 pF. It should
be emphasized that the analytical method obtained below has general
implication, and is suitable for other circuit conditions.
The oscillating signal generating process by the RLC tank can be
divided into two stages: one is the charging stage and the other is the
oscillating stage. During the charging period, both the energy storage
elements L1 and C1 in the RLC tank will obtain energy from TENG, as
shown in Fig. 2A. At the end of charging period, the E-switch is
disconnected from the RLC tank. Subsequently the parallel RLC tank is
being excited by the injected energy initially stored in the capacitor C1
and inductor L1. Since the two elements L1 and C1 are connected in
parallel, they have the same voltage across them. Fig. 2B shows the
waveform of the control signal, Vctl (G-S voltage of the MOFET, Q1) and
the voltage across L1 and C1, VLC, where t1 and t2 are the charging time
durations and t3 is the oscillating period. At t = 0, the pulsed voltage
output of TENG reaches its maximum and is detected by the peak voltage
detector. At the same time, the control signal controlled by the peak
voltage detector rises immediately, which turns on the MOSFET, Q1.
C. Zhang et al. Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

Fig. 2. Sensing signal generation. (A) Schematic diagram of the E-switch and transmitter. (B) Waveforms of the control signal Vctl and oscillating signal VLC. (C)
Pulsed voltage output of TENG with Q disconnected (red curve), pulsed voltage output of TENG connected with the E-switch (yellow curve) and oscillating signal of
the RLC resonant circuit (blue curve). (D) Zoom-in oscillating signal and control signal. (E) A photo of the E-switch and transmitter fabricated.

Then, the RLC tank is charged by TENG and VLC increases dramatically
during the t1 period as shown in Fig. 2B. When VLC increases up to 50 V,
it becomes stable in the t2 time duration owing to voltage clamping by
the Zener diode (VZD = 50 V for this work) as shown in Fig. 2B. At t = t1
+t2 (in this study, t1 +t2 = 250 ns), the control signal becomes low,
which in-turn turns off the MOSFET, Q1, and the RLC tank starts to
generate an oscillating signal in the t3 time duration as shown in Fig. 2B.
At this time, regardless of whether the voltage of the RLC tank is positive
or negative, one of D1 and Q1 is at the off-state, therefore, the E-switch is
equivalent to be disconnected from the RLC tank. As a result, both the
TENG and E-switch have no influence on the RLC tank. It should be
emphasized that there is no additional energy source except that from
the TENG to power all the electronic devices included in the circuit.
Assume Δt =t1 +t2, at t = Δt, the voltage across the capacitor and the
current flowing in the inductor can be expressed by the following
equations,
VLC (Δt) = VZD (1)
VZD t1
+ VZD t2
IL (Δt) = 2
(2)
L1
The analytical solution of the attenuating oscillating signal can be
obtained by solving a second-order differential equation with the two
initial conditions in Eqs. (1) and (2), and the approximate solution of VLC
can be expressed as follows,
TENG is coupled to the RLC tank efficiently to generate an oscillating
signal. The blue curve in Fig. 2C shows the oscillating signal and the
zoom-in waveform is shown in Fig. 2D. Fig. 2E is a photo of the E-switch
and transmitter fabricated for the experiment. In this experiment, the
PVD and MOSFET in the E-switch consume about 47% of the TENG
output energy, and the energy transfer efficiency from TENG to the RLC
tank is about 45%. A detailed description of the E-switch and its energy
utilization are described in Supplementary Note 3.
3.2. Impedance modulation for sensing
From Eq. (3) and Eq. (4), we can obtain the transmitting signal
(waveform in the t3 time duration as shown in Fig. 2B) produced by the
RLC tank as follows,
VT (t) = VZD e− αt cos(ω0 t) (5)
Since AD converters normally have large output impedances of a few
tens of megohms and the coupling coefficient between L1 and L2 is
relatively small for our sensor system due to the relatively long distance
between the coils, the current induced in the receiving coil L2 is quite
small compared with that in the inductor L1 in the transmitter. Thus, the
received signal can be expressed as follows,
√̅̅̅̅̅
VR (t) = k
L2
VZD e− αt cos(ω0 t) (6)
L1

VLC (t) = VZD e− α(t− Δt)

cos(ω0 (t − Δt)), t > t1 + t2 (3) Where k is the coupling coefficient between the transmitting coil and the
√̅̅̅̅
receiving coil, k LL21 VZD is the initial voltage of the received signal. The
where
derivation process of Eq. (6) is described in Supplementary Note 4.
α=
1
,
1
ω0 = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (4) Assume
2R1 C1 L1 C1
g(t) = cos(ω0 t) (7)
The specific solutions of the differential equations are described in
Supplementary Note 2. The red curve in Fig. 2C is the voltage output of f (t) = VZ e− αt
(8)
TENG being disconnected with the E-switch, while the yellow curve is
that of TENG being connected with the E-switch. The yellow curve then the transmitting VT(t) is transformed to
clearly shows that the voltage output of TENG is declined precipitously
VT (t) = f (t)g(t) (9)
when it reaches its maximum, which means the energy contained in

4
C. Zhang et al. Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

where, f(t) and g(t) can be considered as the modulating signal and Table 1
Circuit parameters used for wireless sensor
carrier signal respectively. From Eq. (4) and Eq. (7), the frequency of
system.
carrier signal is determined by C1 and L1. The modulating signal decays
exponentially with a damping factor α being inversely proportional to C1 500 pF

R1, as shown in Eq. (4) and Eq. (8). A change of resistance, R1, of the L1 1.5 mH
resistive type sensor will result in a change of the signal amplitude, L2 50 μH
R1 300 kΩ
which in-turn modulates amplitude of the carrier signal. The simulated
D1,D2 4 cm
waveforms of the modulating signal (f(t)) and modulated signal (trans­ d 2.5 cm
mitting signal, g(t)) with different R1 values are shown in Fig. 3A and B k 0.15
respectively, with all the parameters used being summarized in Table 1. ID(MOSFET) 2A
The results indicate that the transmitting signal can be obtained by VZD 50 V
Size of TENG 4 × 4 cm2
multiplying the modulating signal with the carrier signal, indeed. The
Force 20 N
smaller the resistance R1 is, the faster the transmitting signal decays.
Fig. 3C shows the experimental results of transmitting signal with
different R1 values, that are in well agreement with the simulated results ∫ +∞
as shown in Fig. 3B. Fig. 3D is the experimental results of the received E= V 2 (t)dt (10)
signal with a coupling coefficient of k = 0.15 assumed. 0

A signal energy-based processing method is then proposed to extract By inserting Eq. (5) into Eq. (10), we obtain the energy of trans­
the sensing information from the received signal without using the mitting signal as follows
traditional signal demodulation method. In signal processing, the energy ∫ +∞
E of a continuous-time voltage signal V(t) is defined as ET = (V ZD )2 e− 2αt cos2 (ω0 t)dt (11)
0

Fig. 3. Analyses of signal amplitude modulation. The simulated waveforms of the modulating signal (A) and modulated signal (B) with different R1 values. The
experimental results of the transmitting signal (C) and received signal (D) with different R1 values. (E) The experimental result of received signal at R1 = 75 kΩ. (F)
Damping factor α as a function of R1. (G) Damping factor α as a function of C1 with R1 = 300 kΩ, L1 = 1.5 mH. (H) The initial voltage of the transmitted signal as a
function of C1. (I) Damping factor α as a function of L1 with R1 = 300 kΩ and C1 = 500 pF. All the experiments and theoretical analyses were conducted with the
circuit parameters being summarized in Table 1.

5
C. Zhang et al.
after integration, it becomes,
(VZD )2
ET = (12)
4α
Re-arrange the formula, the damping factor for the transmitter can
be obtained as follows,
(VZD )2
α= (13)
4ET
Similarly, for the received signal, it is
k 2 L2
(VZD )2
(14)
L1
α=
4ER
In fact, we can also obtain the damping factor α from a damping
oscillating signal by the following equation:
(Vint )2
α= (15)
4E
Where, Vint and E are the initial voltage and energy of the oscillating
signal respectively. Eq. (15) is applicable to both the transmitting signal
and received signal. Besides, we can also obtain the damping factor α by
processing a small portion of the transmitted or received signal. Fig. 3E
shows the experimental result of the received signal at R1 = 75 kΩ, and
same values of α can be obtained by processing the waveforms in the
blue and red rectangular regions respectively. Fig. 3F shows dependence
of the damping factor α on R1 with α being calculated from the trans­
mitted and received signals. It is clearly shown that the experimental
results are consistent with the theoretical analysis when R1 is in the
range of 10 kΩ to 100 kΩ. In the case of R1 < 10 kΩ, the transmitting
signal lasts only a very short time due to very large α, and it is easy to
induce error in the extracted values. In the case of R1 > 100 kΩ, α tends
to be stabilized to a low value depending on the parasitic resistance of
the inductor L1. These two cases are not particularly suitable for precise
sensing information extraction.
According to Eq. (4), the damping factor α is inversely proportional
to the product of C1 and R1 which means capacitive sensors can also be
used to modulate the amplitude of the sensing signal. The damping
factor α calculated from the transmitted and received signals as a
function of C1 with R1 fixed at 300 kΩ and L1 fixed at 1.5 mH are shown
in Fig. 3G. Results show that α decreases with increasing C1 which is
similar to that of the R1 case. In addition to affecting the damping factor,
C1 also affects the amplitude and resonant frequency of the transmitting
signal. According to the law of conservation of energy, the larger the C1,
the smaller the amplitude of the transmitting signal as E = CU2/2. The
initial voltage of the transmitted signal can be increased by reducing the
capacitance C1, but the smaller the C1, the greater the attenuation of the
signal and the shorter the oscillating signal duration, as shown in
Fig. 3G, which is not conducive to sensing information. The initial
voltage of the transmitted signal varies with C1 as shown in Fig. 3H. It is
clearly shown that without the Zener diode, the maximum amplitude of
transmitted signal can reach 225 V as long as C1 is smaller enough, and
in the case of using the Zener diode, it is relatively small but very stable,
suitable for precision sensing application. Although theoretical analysis
shows that the inductance L1 has no effect on the damping factor of the
parallel RLC resonant circuit, as mentioned above, the actual inductance
has parasitic resistance, therefore the actual inductance connected with
a capacitor in parallel is equivalent to a series RLC resonant circuit. For a
series RLC resonant circuit, the damping factor α is expressed as,
R
α= (16)
2L
which means the attenuation factor is inversely proportional to 2 L. The
dependence of damping factor α calculated from the transmitted and
received signal on L1 are shown in Fig. 3I, with R1 fixed at 300 kΩ, C1
6
Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770
fixed at 500 pF. In summary, capacitive, inductive, and resistive sensors
can all be used for impedance modulation for signal processing. Using a
certain type of sensor, the parameter selection for the other two types of
components should be based on the principle of keeping the damping
factor of the sensing signal smaller. For example, if a resistive sensor is
used, the inductance L1 and the capacitance C1 should be large enough,
so that the damping factor will have a larger range of variation.
3.3. Frequency modulation for sensing
In our previous work, the TENG-based self-powered instantaneous
wireless sensing system with an integrated micro-switch utilized the
shift of resonant frequency of transmission signal as the sensing variable.
The present self-powered wireless sensing system based on E-switch can
also use the frequency modulation for wireless sensing using either a
capacitive sensor or an inductive sensor. Since the E-switch can be
automatically disconnected from the transmitter when the oscillating
signal is generated, the resonant frequency of the transmitted signal is
solely determined by the RLC tank, therefore the resonant frequency is
very stable. According to Eq.(4), the angular frequency of the trans­
mitted signal is inversely proportional to the square root of the product
of L1 and C1. As shown before, the resonant frequency and sensing in­
formation of the received signals can be extracted by using the fast
Fourier transform (FFT) analysis as the change of capacitance or
inductance of the sensor will vary the resonant frequency of the sensor
systems. As such, the newly designed sensing system is also suitable for
the frequency-based sensing with better performance as compared with
the previous designs. To demonstrate this capability, we integrated a
variable capacitor C1 with tunable values in the transmitter as the
capacitive sensor. Fig. 4A shows the FFT spectrum of the transmitting
signals and the received signals with different C1 values. The experi­
ments were conducted with the circuit parameters being summarized in
Table 1. It can be seen from the spectrogram that as the capacitance C1
decreases, the resonant frequency of the signal increases, while the peak
value of the FFT spectra shows an attenuating trend. This is because the
smaller the C1, the larger the attenuation coefficient of the sensing signal
and the shorter the signal duration. A more specific relationship between
the resonant frequency of the received signal and C1 is shown in Fig. 4B.
Fig. 4C shows the results of multiple measurements of resonant fre­
quencies with different capacitances of C1. The results show that the
resonant frequency of the received signal has high stability. In fact, the
resonant frequency scattering of the results of 5 measurements for each
specific C1 value is less than 10 Hz, which implies that the accuracy of
the sensing system mostly depends on the accuracy of the sensor itself.
Fig. 4D-F are the experimental results using L1 with different in­
ductances, it is clearly shown that inductive sensors can also be used for
this newly-designed sensor system. The above results have shown that
by using the E-switch module for the new design with a fixed voltage
output, the sensor system could utilize resistive, capacitive, and induc­
tive sensors for sensing with much more stable signal output, and the
sensing is much more reliable, accurate, and precise.
3.4. Effects of TENG dimensions and transmission distance
Effects of the TENG dimensions and transmission distance on sensing
system were investigated with all parameters shown in Table 1. In the
above analysis, the initial voltages of transmitting signals were clamped
at 50 V by the Zener diode. For this, the TENG is merely used as a power
source. After the charging duration, the E-switch is disconnected with
the transmitter as discussed above. Thus, the frequency and damping
factor of the transmitting signal are determined by the transmitter and
are not affected by the TENG and E-switch. However, the amplitude of
output voltage of the TENG will influence the transmission signal.
Fig. 5A shows initial voltage of the transmitting signals with the trans­
mitter powered by TENGs with different dimensions. It can be seen that
the initial voltage increased with the increase in tribo-plate dimensions
C. Zhang et al. Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

Fig. 4. Analyses of signal frequency modulation. (A) FFT spectra of the transmitted and received signals with different C1 values. (B) Dependence of the resonant
frequency on C1. (C) Stability of frequencies of multiple measurements at different capacitances of C1. (D) FFT spectra of the transmitted and received signal with
different L1 values. (E) Dependence of the resonant frequency on L1. (F) Signal stability of frequencies for multiple measurements with different inductance values of
L1. All the experiments and theoretical analyses were conducted with the circuit parameters being summarized in Table 1.

Fig. 5. Effects of TENG dimensions and coil distance. The initial voltage amplitude (A) and FFT spectra (B) of the transmitting signals with different TENG di­
mensions. (C) Dependence of the initial voltage amplitude of the received signal on the distance between L1 and L2 coils and the partially enlarged view in the inset.
(D) Damping factor of the received signal as a function of distance. (E) FFT spectra of the received signals at different distances. (F) Frequency and damping factor of
the received signal as a function of VZD. All the experiments and theoretical analyses were conducted with circuit parameters shown in Table 1.

but no more than 50 V as it was clamped by the Zener diode. The initial transmitting signal, the tribo-plate active areas should be more than 40
voltage was only 40 V for the TENG with a size of 30 mm × 30mm due mm × 40 mm for this design. Fig. 5B shows the FFT spectra of the
to low energy output of TENG. In order to stabilize the amplitude of transmitting signals when being powered by TENGs with different

7
C. Zhang et al.
dimensions. The results exhibited that the resonant frequency of trans­
mitting signals remains constant for TENGs with different sizes, indi­
cating that the TENG has no influence on transmission signals indeed.
Dependence of the initial amplitude of received signal on the dis­
tance between L1 and L2 inductor coils is shown in Fig. 5C. It is clearly
shown that amplitude of the received signal decreases with the increase
of coil distance and the voltage is only 25 mV for a transmission distance
of 12 cm. For impedance modulation, the damping factor of the received
signal remains stable within a certain range, as shown in Fig. 5D. For
frequency modulation, the frequency of the received signal is completely
unaffected by distance. Fig. 5E shows the FFT of the received signal with
different transmission distances. The results show that the received
signal still has a high signal-to-noise ratio which is about -25 dB at a
distance of 12 cm (the received signal is 25 mV). Hence, for effective
transmitting distance, the transmitting distance does not affect sensing
information as well though the signal becomes weak. In this experiment,
the diameter of the transmitting coil and the receiving coil used is 4 cm
and the inductance ratio is L1/L2 = 30. We can further increase the
transmission distance by increasing the diameter of the coils, as
described in our previous work [46]. Fig. 5F illustrates the frequency
and damping factor of the received signal as a function of VZD which
determines the initial amplitude of transmitting signal. It can be seen
that the initial amplitude of transmitting signal has no influence on the
sensor system. However, to increase the transmission distance, the
clamping voltage of the Zener diode should be as large as possible.
3.5. Performance comparison for M-switch and E-Switch
We have replaced the micro-mechanical switch with the E-switch for
the self-powered wireless sensor system, and obtained very stable
transmitting oscillating signal. A comparative experiment was con­
ducted to prove that performance of the new design is better than that
using a M-switch at the same operating conditions. Fig. 6A and B are the
transmitting signal generated by using the M-switch and E-switch
respectively. It is shown that there were high frequency signal compo­
nents at the beginning of transmitting signal when the M-switch was
Fig. 6. Performance comparison for the cases of M-switch and E-switch. The transmitting signal generated by using a M-switch (A) and an E-switch (B). The
comparison of the amplitude of transmitting signal for the cases with a M-switch (C) and an E-switch (D). The frequencies of transmitting signal for the cases with a
M-switch (E) and an E-switch (F).
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Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770
used due to parasitic capacitance and inductance, and jittering contact
of the M-switch. Fig. 6C and D are the comparison of the amplitudes of
transmitting signals, while Fig. 6E and F are for the frequencies of
transmitting signals for the two cases with a M-switch and an E-switch
respectively. For the M-switch case, indeed the transmitting signal has
larger amplitude due to the unclamped large voltage from the TENG, but
has much higher noise in the transmitting signal, and the amplitude and
resonant frequency fluctuate a lot. On the other hand, the transmitting
signal with very stable amplitude of 50 V and resonant frequency can be
generated for the E-switch case. Although the E-switch consumes elec­
tricity and clamp the output voltage at a smaller value, the transmitting
signal is much clearer, finer, and more precise. These allow signals to be
transmitted to much longer distance even down to a few millivolt levels
as compared to the M-switch case, where the received signal would be
buried in noises if its amplitude is smaller than a few hundreds of milli-
volts.
4. Applications
4.1. Real-time monitoring of tire pressure and speed
The newly-designed self-powered instantaneous sensor system can
be used in a variety of complex environments with the advantages of
high precision and accuracy, no need to replace the battery etc. Here we
apply this concept for self-powered wireless tire pressure and speed
monitoring using a resistive type pressure sensor. Fig. 7A shows the
configuration of the tire pressure and speed monitoring system for a
bicycle. The TENG (30 mm × 45 mm × 4 mm) was sandwiched between
the inner and outer tubes of the tire of a bicycle as shown in Fig. 7B
schematically. When the bicycle is running, the part where the tire
touches the ground will undergo deformation. If the tire pressure sensor
is in the place, then this deformation causes the TENG to generate a
pulse voltage. The wheel rotates one time, the TENG generates a pulse
signal with the waveform shown in Fig. S3 in Supplementary Note 5
(because the bicycle connected to the oscilloscope probe cannot drive
normally, we only measured one pulse signal at a time). The change of
C. Zhang et al. Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

Fig. 7. Tire pressure monitoring system. (A) Structure configuration of the tire pressure monitoring system. (B) The TENG sandwiched between the inner and outer
tubes of the tire of a bicycle. (C) The transmitting and receiving coils. (D) The LCD screen displaying the sensing information.

the tire pressure will cause the resistance of the pressure sensor to
change, thereby achieving an amplitude modulated transmission signal.
The transmitting coil was fixed on the wheel rim to rotate with the
wheel. The receiving coil L2 was fixed on the front wheel support to
receive the signal through the magnetic resonance coupling, as shown in
Fig. 7C. The receiving module performs data processing on the received
signal and displays the processed result on the LCD screen in real-time,
as shown in Fig. 7D.
4.2. Signal processing
Fig. 8A is a photo of the tire pressure sensing system developed. From
Fig. 8B, we can see that the LCD displays the tire pressure and speed of
the bicycle in real-time. Fig. 8C exhibits the transmitter and receiver
coils placed coaxially. In this tire pressure monitoring system, we used a
film type pressure sensor as shown in Fig. 8D. The diameter of the cir­
cular sensor was 5 mm and it was easy to fix between the inner tube and
the outer tube of the tire. Dependence of resistance of the sensor on
pressure is shown in Fig. 8E. The pressure between the inner and outer
tire tubes, which is applied to the resistive type pressure sensor, is
proportional to the tire pressure, and the conversion formula is
F oscillating signal and the wireless signal transmission do not consume
P= (16)
S
specifically, it is 100 kPa = 1.02 kg/cm2 (≈1 bar). The resistance of the
sensor and the damping factor of received signal are shown in Fig. 8F as
a function of tire pressure. The experimental results are in good agree­
ment with the theoretical ones in the range of 50–250 kPa.
A CMOS 8-Bit 32 MSPS Sampling AD Converter, AD9280 were used
to collect data. The actual sampling rate of the sensing system was
8 MHz, which satisfies the Nyquist sampling theorem, because our
sensing signal frequency was lower than 500 kHz. The sampling time for
each trigger was 80 μs, and the number of sampling points was 640. The
total energy of the signal was calculated by the single chip microcom­
puter STM32, and then the damping factor of the received signal and the
tire pressure were calculated according to Eq. (15). The time interval
between two triggers is the time required for the tire to rotate one round.
Thus, the vehicle speed can be accurately calculated based on the for­
mula v=s/t. The measurement data under four typical tire pressure
conditions are summarized in Table 2 and five measurements were
recorded for each tire pressure condition. It can be seen from the table
that the resolution can reach 5.5 kPa and the accuracy of the pressure
measured is over 97%. The accuracy for speed measured is well over
99%, demonstrated its excellent potential for the application. It should
be pointed out that the TENG used to collect the energy and generate
any additional energy from the bicycle, so that the bicycler will not feel

9
C. Zhang et al. Nano Energy 92 (2022) 106770

Fig. 8. Tire Pressure Monitoring. (A) Photo of the actual tire pressure sensing system. (B) Photo of LCD displaying the tire pressure. (C) Photo of the transmitter and
receiver coils. (D) Photo of pressure sensor. (E) The resistance of pressure sensor as a function of force. (F) The resistance of the sensor and the damping factor of
received signal as a function of tire pressure.

signal amplitude and resonant frequency. Different from the traditional

Table 2
TENG-based self-powered sensors, this type of sensing system responds
Testing results of the tire pressure monitoring system.
to every external force trigger in real time, without the need for a long
Tire Pres. Pressure Measured Max. error Measurement period of time to collect and store energy. A novel signal amplitude
(kPa) (kPa) (kPa) precision (%)
based analysis method has been developed to extract the sensing in­
100 103.7/100.9/98.4/ 5.3 97.4% formation encoded in the received signal. The self-powered wireless
102.2/101.6
sensor system has the following advantages: Firstly, the energy output of
120 122.1/118.6/121.5/ 4.7 97.7%
123.3/121.9 TENG is coupled into the RLC tank, when its voltage reaches its
160 159.1/159.6/161.1/ 5.8 97.1% maximum which dramatically improves the TENG energy utilization.
163.4/164.9 Secondly, the controller is disconnected from the RLC tank automati­
200 198.7/203.6/200.9/ 6.6 96.7% cally after the energy injection process, which makes the frequency of
200.1/205.3
the transmitting signal not to be affected by TENG and immune to
environmental variables such as temperature and humidity. Thirdly, by
additional burden by installing this sensor system, which is different using a Zener diode, the amplitude of the transmitted signal becomes
from those traditional magnetic generator-based lighting systems for constant. Finally, compared with mechanical switches, the E-switch can
bicycles where additional force is needed to make the magnetic gener­ be directly connected to the TENG without changing the structure of the
ator to run. TENG and increasing the difficulty of TENG fabrication. Theoretical
It should be noted that a bicycle was used as the example for the analysis on the generation and transmission of the transmitting signal
demonstration, the working principle and sensing system can be has been conducted, and the results show that the attenuation trend of
extended to many applications such as vehicles, tracks, transportation the signal increases with the decrease of the sensor resistance value. The
belts etc., it has much broader general implications and applications experimental results are consistent well with the theoretical analysis. As
than what have been demonstrated here. a practical application, a tire pressure and speed monitoring system has
been demonstrated which has a pressure resolution of 5.5 kPa and a
5. Conclusions speed accuracy of about 97%.

In this paper, a novel self-powered instantaneous wireless sensing
system based on TENG has been proposed and developed. The sensor
system consisted of a transmitting module composed of an E-switch and
an RLC tank, and a receiving module composed of an inductor coil, an
MCU and an LCD. The transmitting module was fully powered by the
contact-separate mode TENG made of PA6 and PDMS tribo-membranes.
A sensor was integrated in the RLC tank, which generates an oscillating
signal with sensing information encoded once the energy from the TENG
is injected into the resonant circuit. The receiving module receives sig­
nals through magnetic resonance coupling. The E-switch module
composed of a diode, a MOSFET, a Zener diode and a peak voltage de­
tector which enables the output signal with much higher stability for
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Chi Zhang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Validation, Writing – original draft. Jinkai Chen, Wei­
peng Xuan: Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Supervision. Shuyi
Huang, Lin Shi: Methodology, Investigation. Zhen Cao, Zhi Ye, Yubo
Li, Xiaozhi Wang, Shurong Dong, Andrew J. Flewitt: Resources. Hao
Jin: Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Jikui Luo:
Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Supervision.

10
C. Zhang et al.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Pro­
gram of China (No. 2018YFB2002500), National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 61974037, No. 61904042), NSFC-Zhejiang
Joint Fund for the Integration of Industrialization and information (No.
U20A20172, U1909212), Zhejiang Province Key R & D programs
(2021C05004), Zhejiang University Global Partnership Fund (No.
100000-11320). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the
Zhejiang University Micro-nano Fabrication Center.
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