Passive and Semi-Passive Intelligent Sensing Systems Technology

Dear Colleagues,

With the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the demand for sensing and monitoring in smart environments (such as smart homes, smart cities, and smart industry) is growing increasingly. However, traditional active sensing devices face significant challenges in long-term, large-scale, or special application scenarios due to limitations in battery life, maintenance costs, and deployment flexibility. Passive and semi-passive monitoring technologies innovatively address the energy supply issue, providing the core driving force for realizing the next generation of sustainable IoT perception networks that are "deploy-and-forget" and "lifetime maintenance-free".

This Special Issue aims to highlight cutting-edge theories and key technologies in the field of passive and semi-passive intelligent monitoring. The core concept involves utilizing techniques such as energy harvesting and backscatter communication to enable sensor nodes to perform environmental information collection, data processing, and wireless transmission without batteries or with minimal battery replenishment. These technologies significantly expand the boundaries of the IoT, enabling applications in areas traditionally difficult for conventional technologies to cover, such as implantable medical devices, large-scale structural health monitoring, smart agriculture, and harsh industrial environments.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

Passive Communication and Identification Technologies:

1. Antenna-related technologies.
2. RFID sensing technologies and applications.
3. Ambient backscatter communication.
4. Integration of Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (e.g., LoRa, NB-IoT) in passive systems.
5. Ultra-low-power wireless communication protocols and architectures.

Ambient Energy Harvesting Technologies:

1. RF Energy Harvesting: Design, optimization, and system integration.
2. Ambient Light and Solar Energy Harvesting: Efficient energy management strategies for low-light conditions indoors and outdoors.
3. Thermal/Temperature Difference Energy Harvesting: Utilizing ambient temperature gradients to power monitoring systems.
4. Vibration Energy Harvesting: Harvesting energy from mechanical motion or environmental noise.
5. Multi-source hybrid energy harvesting and management circuits.

Passive/Semi-Passive Monitoring Systems and Integration:

1. Design and development of passive sensors (e.g., temperature, humidity, strain, gas, biosensors).
2. Event-driven semi-passive monitoring systems.
3. Deployment, localization, and data fusion algorithms for passive sensing networks.
4. Case studies of passive monitoring solutions for smart environments (Industry 4.0, smart buildings, precision agriculture).

System-Level Challenges and Future Prospects:

1. Energy-neutral operation and power budget management.
2. Reliability, security, and privacy issues in passive systems.
3. Integration of Passive IoT with edge computing and artificial intelligence.

We sincerely invite researchers from academia and industry to submit high-quality original research articles and reviews to share your latest findings and insights. Let us jointly promote the development of passive intelligent monitoring technology and contribute to building a greener, smarter, and more sustainable future world.

Submission Instructions

Manuscripts should be submitted online through the MDPI submission system. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer-review. Accepted papers will be published in the journal. Authors may refer to the Electronics Instructions for Authors for detailed formatting requirements. This Special Issue is published in Open Access format, with an Article Processing Charge (APC) of 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Authors are recommended to utilize MDPI's professional English editing service prior to publication to ensure language quality.

We look forward to your valuable contributions.

Dr. Gang Li
Dr. Ping Wang
Dr. Chu Chu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• passive
• semi-passive
• low power communication
• low power intelligent monitoring
• RFID
• IoT