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Issue #228 July 2009
LiOn King
A Look at “Battery-in-a-Chip” Technology
by Tom Cantrell
Start | Energy In A Chip | Charge It | UPS-Lite | Dust Storm | Tips & Tricks | Harvest Time | Sources & PDF
HARVEST TIME
When you think about it, the environment is filled with huge amounts of energy we can tap (see Table 1). Our old pal Sol(ar) gets most of the headlines, but there are plenty more sources free for the taking. Piezo transducers can capture energy from the vibration of a motor or the shock of a shoe hitting the pavement. Tomorrow’s smart wardrobe might literally include “smart clothes” that run off power harvested from the heat of your skin. Or imagine, as Tesla did a century ago, being able to skim power from the RF chatter that bombards us.
| Energy Source |
Harvested Power |
|---|---|
| Vibration/Motion | |
| Human | 4 µW/cm2 |
| Industry | 100 µW/cm2 |
| Temperature Difference | |
| Human | 25 µW/cm2 |
| Industry | 1-10 mW/cm2 |
| Light | |
| Indoor | 10 µW/cm2 |
| Outdoor | 10 mW/cm2 |
| RF | |
| GSM | 0.1 µW/cm2 |
| Wi-Fi | 0.001 µW/cm2 |
| Table 1—The environment is filled with ambient energy free for the taking.[5] All you have to do is figure out ways to harvest it. | |
We’re only at the beginning of the green revolution, and already it’s clear that energy harvesting is well beyond the (sunny) “blue sky” hype phase. The technology from Cymbet and TI is clearly viable for some real-world applications today and, with inexorable advances in technology, many more tomorrow. If you want to reap the benefits of energy harvesting, it’s time to sow some new and clever designs.
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