Analog Circuit Design Volume Three

Chapter 226

Energy harvester produces power from local environment, eliminating batteries in wireless sensors

Jim Drew

Abstract

An energy harvester that produces power from local environment, eliminating batteries in wireless sensors, is described.

Keywords

Energy harvesting

LTC3588-1

Introduction

Recent advances in ultralow power microcontrollers have produced devices that offer unprecedented levels of integration for the amount of power they require to operate. These are systems on a chip with aggressive power-saving schemes, such as shutting down power to idle functions. In fact, so little power is needed to run these devices that many sensors are going wireless, since they can readily run from batteries. Unfortunately, batteries ...