A combination of MicroGen Systems' BOLT 060, a MEMS-based piezoelectric vibrational energy harvester (PZEH) micro-power generator, and Infinite Power Solutions' THINERGY IPS-EVAL-EH-01 Energy Harvesting Evaluation Kit, has powered up an entire wireless sensor board at the Sensors Expo and Tradeshow 2011 conducted in Rosemont, Illinois.
At the show, MicroGen Systems' BOLT 060 is the first commercial grade, MEMS-based PZEH demonstrated at low acceleration and frequency levels. The IPS-EVAL-EH-01 admits energy from various energy harvesting transducers, including both DC and AC charge sources. It stores the energy effectively in a special kind of postage stamp-sized thin-film battery called THINERGY MEC101 solid-state micro-energy cell (MEC).
The near-loss energy storage equipment, THINERGY MEC101, can admit charge current below 1µA, making it suitable for energy harvesting purposes. The IPS-EVAL-EH-01 also features Maxim Integrated Products' energy harvesting power management integrated circuit, the MAX17710 that offers an input voltage boost circuit as an option. It controls the battery's charge voltage and offers programmable tuned output voltage to power the load.
Texas Instruments' wireless temperature sensor demo called the ez430-RF2500 was utilized as the load during the demonstration. It has CC2500 2.4 GHz radio transceivers and an in-built MSP430 microcontroller to send temperature data.
According to the President and Chief Technology Officer of MicroGen, Robert Andosca, the company's BOLT micro-power generator products will remove the necessity of replacing dead batteries in wireless sensor networks and nodes. The company has showed that cost-effective and high-performance solutions that can speed up the installation of self-powered wireless sensor networks, he added.
The Vice President of Marketing at Infinite Power Solutions, Tim Bradow commented that the company is happy to offer its simple-to-use, effective energy storage solution to MicroGen's low power energy harvesters.
Source: http://www.microgensystems.com