New PCTB101 Battery-Free Sensor Tag Advances Powercast’s Mission to Connect Anything to Everything—Anywhere to Everywhere.
MUNICH, GERMANY — November 10, 2026 — Powercast Corporation, a pioneer and world leader in wireless power technology based in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, today announced the European version of its PCTB100 Battery-Free Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) Sensor Tag.
Unveiled by Powercast at Electronica 2026 (Booth C6.621), the new PCTB101 Edge Node extends the Powercast EDGE platform further into the European market, enabling battery-free environmental monitoring for smart buildings, medical/pharmaceutical, retail, industrial IoT, logistics, and other connected applications.
The ultra-thin (1.2 mm) PCTB101 is optimized for 868 MHz RF power sources and combines Powercast's industry leading RF energy-harvesting technology with BLE connectivity to provide continuous temperature and humidity monitoring without an onboard battery, receiving wireless power from RF sources up to 25 meters away.
The PCTB101 tag provides precise temperature (–40°C to +85°C, ±0.1°C accuracy) and humidity (±1.5% RH accuracy) readings, along with a unique device ID that allows multiple sensors to operate simultaneously in dense environments. The physical form factor matches a standard RAIN RFID tag, adding active sensing and BLE connectivity in the same footprint.
Traditional battery-powered sensors require ongoing maintenance, battery replacements, and end-of-life battery handling. Powercast's battery-free approach eliminates the need for onboard batteries, reducing maintenance requirements and battery waste while enabling scalable sensor deployments with more frequent data reads (no duty cycle constraints to save battery life).
Across Europe, organizations are investing in digitalization, energy efficiency, intelligent infrastructure and sustainability. The European Union's revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275 promotes improvements in building performance, while its Smart Readiness Indicator framework recognizes the role of smart technologies in monitoring and controlling building systems. For increasing sustainability, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 governs the entire lifecycle of batteries sold in the European Union (which includes everyday consumers as well as professional operators)—from raw material extraction to end-of-life recycling and waste management.
Battery-free sensors such as the PCTB101 complement these efforts by enabling distributed environmental monitoring in offices, warehouses, industrial facilities, and other buildings. Temperature and humidity data can help facility and logistics operators understand environmental conditions and support informed decisions; critically important in cold chain management of perishables and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.
With its unique device identifier supporting individual sensor identification in multi-device environments, the tag could monitor a device and function as its Digital Product Passport (DPP), providing configurable and expandable real-time monitoring and asset tracking at the edge. The BLE packets can be received by any BLE gateway. Users can also monitor multiple tags simultaneously with the Powercast BLE smartphone app (PC BLE Tag).
"Europe represents an important market for intelligent, connected and sustainable infrastructure," said Charles Goetz, CEO of Powercast. "The Powercast EDGE platform unlocks continuous, high-integrity data streams for automation by delivering power directly to where that data is generated. By optimizing the PCTB101 for 868 MHz RF power sources, we're extending our battery-free sensing approach to European applications. The PCTB101 provides persistent environmental monitoring, making intelligent sensor networks practical at scale, without the burden of batteries at every node."
Developers can contact Powercast for more information on obtaining PCTB101 Battery-Free BLE Sensor Tags or reference designs at contact@powercastco.com.
Please visit www.powercastco.com for more information.
About Powercast
Powercast is a pioneer and world leader in enabling intelligent wireless edge nodes, networks and infrastructure. The Powercast EDGE Platform provides a wireless power layer that enables high-density, intelligent network deployments, connecting anything to everything…anywhere to everywhere. Founded in 2003, Powercast’s broad portfolio includes wireless power (radio frequency, magnetic resonance and inductive), sensing, processing and communication technologies—Powering Your Edge.
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Source: Powercast Corporation
