Feb 28 2011
NEC has designed a small sensor to detect the energy used by electronic systems and transmits the data to a central management system eliminating the need for an outside battery or power supply.
NEC's Wireless sensor IC
Energy harvesting supplies power to the sensing device. This technique involves changing energy prevailing in an environment to electricity. It will consume less than 1mW energy with a circuit. It does not need external batteries or wireless interface so designing it in a small footprint is easy.
The sensing device will help users view the level of energy consumption without batteries or other wireless systems, reducing maintenance costs. It is ideally suitable for use in electronic gadgets. Being an unconnected solution, it eliminates chances of carbon emissions.
The company unveiled the product on February 22 at the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2011). The event was conducted between February 20 and 24 in San Francisco, California.
Source: http://www.nec.com/