Energy Harvesting Applications
Silicon Labs enables developers to implement self-sustaining, ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks. In addition to being environmentally-friendly and virtually inexhaustible, harvested energy provides a cost-effective, convenient alternative to conventional batteries.
The appeal of completely self-powered circuits in today's socioeconomic climate is clear:
- Lifetime operation
- No batteries or maintenance
- Environmentally-friendly design
- Lower system costs
Silicon Labs' Energy Harvesting Reference Design (ENERGY-HARVEST-RD) puts it all together.
Energy Harvesting Solutions Guide
White Paper: Energy Harvesting Tipping Point for Wireless Sensor Nodes
Energy Harvesting Reference Design
This reference design consists of a wireless sensor node and a USB wireless adapter. The wireless sensor node is powered by a solar cell. There is an auxiliary input that will allow power to be sourced from other energy harvesting alternatives such as thermal, piezo or RF. The Si1xxx measures temperature (using an on-chip temperature sensor), light level and charge level. This sensor information is transmitted wirelessly to the USB wireless adapter. The sensor data is then presented on a GUI for a PC.
An energy harvesting wireless sensor node can be easily implemented using an:
Silicon Labs Energy Harvesting Solutions
Silicon Labs Si1xxx Wireless MCU, C8051F9xx low power microcontroller family and the Si4xxx EZRadioPRO™ family of wireless transmitters, receivers and transceivers are ideally suited for energy harvesting applications, whether the application requires low power for long-life battery applications or self power for perpetual energy harvesting applications.
| Core Processing |
C8051F9xx Microcontroller Family or
Si1000 Wireless MCU Family |
- Reduce power by using circuits only as needed
- Reduce power by minimizing current when in operation
- Reduce power by operating with very low supply voltage
- Reduce power by minimizing time needed to turn on device
- Perform precision sensor measurement
|
- Industry’s lowest standby/sleep current (<50 nA)
- Industry’s lowest active mode current (<170 µA/MHz)
- Industry’s lowest supply voltage (0.9 V)
- Extremely fast wake-up time (<2 µs)
- Integrated ADC with a 16-bit auto-averaging accumulator
|
| Wireless Connectivity |
Si4xxx EZRadioPRO Wireless Solutions or Si1000 Wireless MCU Family |
- Reduce power by using circuits only as needed
- Reduce power through high-efficiency operation
- Support licensed and unlicensed frequency bands
- Reliably operate in harsh, noisy or long-distance environments
- Reduce power through other system-level techniques
|
- Extremely low standby/sleep current (<50 nA)
- Extremely low TX current consumption (28 mA @ +13 dBm)
- Continuous frequency coverage from 240-960 MHz
- Highly robust solution with integrated power amplifier (PA) & high sensitivity receiver
- Tight integration between MCU and wireless products enables intelligent system portioning to further reduce power
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