Alhpa Micro Introduces Energy—harvesting Evaluation Kit

Published:2012/2/17 3:05:00 Author:Li xiao na From:SeekIC

The energy—harvesting evaluation kit has been introduced by Alhpa Micro. The target applications of this kit include wireless sensors, biometric security systems, remote controls, memory and real-time clock back up. This kit is developed by Infinite Power Solutions. It has the Thinergy MEC201 solid-state, rechargeable thin-film battery cell and the MAX17710 power-management IC from Maxim for energy harvesting and battery protection.

The credit card-sized board can be used to offer energy harvesting, storage and management functions. The current less than 1µA is suitable with the IPS-EVAL-EH-01 evaluation kit, which is very typical in energy harvesting. The amorphous silicon photovoltaic solar array only takes 30 minutes to recharge the MEC201 to full in sun, and it only takes eight hours in typical office lighting (1500 lux).

What is more, an interface is provided by the board to any type of external ambient energy-harvesting transducer. Light, vibration, heat and frequency are belonging to the energy sources. The interface header and 6-pin connector of the kit are compatible with microcontroller and low power radio developments kits; therefore, it is suitable with the other suppliers, such as Anaren, BlueRadios, Energy Micro, Microchip, Silicon Laboratories and Texas Instruments.

A 4V, 0.7 mAh capacity rechargeable thin-film battery is used to store the harvested energy. The batteries can be stacked vertically in a parallel configuration for more power and capacity, and it will not consume additional system footprint. A programmable input boost regulator is integrated in the device, and there is no need of any external component.

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