Always look on the bright side of life
This article covers the use of the energy harvesting controller (EHC) implemented on the new RE01 family of embedded controllers from Renesas. The EHC is designed to remove the start-up problem and allow the developer to manage both the start-up cycle of the microcontroller – without taking too much current – and the external power reservoirs. In this case, these comprise storage capacitors and secondary batteries or super caps. This allows the developer to carefully manage the small amounts of energy generated by the energy harvesting power supply and store that energy until needed. The EHC is designed to be flexible enough to work with a wide range of energy harvesting power sources, such as solar cells, thermoelectric generators, vibration harvesters and many other types of power generators. Author: Graeme Clark Principal Engineer, Renesas Electronics
Many developers today are being tasked with developing low-power sensors to populate the Internet of Things. These sensors will be embedded into our streets, offices and factories and will be expected to collect data for years and share it with the cloud, most likely wirelessly. Of course, these products will also have to be low cost and require little or no maintenance, as many will be embedded in difficult to reach locations. Today, these products also have to be sustainable and ethical in terms of materials 10
and energy use, while contributing as little as possible to climate change. The use of batteries as a power source is one of the key areas developers have to address. It comprises many issues around limited lifetimes, product sustainability, manufacturing materials, shipment issues and the disposal of the battery at the end of its life. However, we can look on the bright side as there is a solution that would allow us to remove or at least reduce the size of the battery. We can use the energy that’s
all around us, whether in the form of light, motion, heat or some other form to power our products. This is becoming achievable for a wider range of products with the latest generation of energy harvesting power sources. These are capable of harvesting useful amounts of electrical energy from ever smaller amounts of energy in the environment, and these systems are now capable of using these small amounts of energy more effectively to power products when needed. Electronica Azi International | 1/2021
