If you can imagine a world of sensors everywhere, they are everywhere, inside walls, under the road, and inside any item, but sadly, every six months or a year, you have to change batteries for these sensors. Even if we make more products that can be used in sensors, we are still limited by the battery life. But Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, ARM and other hardware technology giants are trying to develop sensors that can be self-powered.
Energy is everywhere. For these chip development companies, the biggest challenge is finding ways to store energy on their own for continued use. Energy like solar energy is not always available. Another challenge is how to install such a low-energy chip in the sensor.
There are now four energy harvesting chips on the market:
Kinetic energy: Action-based recharging, which has long been used for a long time, these chips are mainly used for charging watches, for example, or with some mobile devices.
Thermal energy: This type of chip generally collects energy from temperature differences, so it is more suitable for some devices close to the human body.
Light: This is like a small solar panel. All solar panels face a challenge: how to maximize the energy when there is sunlight, regardless of the size of the solar panels.
Magnetic energy: Many companies are trying to collect energy from radio waves, but they have not been successful for decades.
As can be seen from the above icons provided by Texas Instruments, different environmental conditions are required for different energy harvesting chips to drive a particular device.
Similar technologies are not very new, but the demand for these wireless sensors is growing, thanks to the rapid development of the Internet of Things. Many companies are now motivated to develop more efficient energy harvesting chips and systems, whether implantable medical devices that may use kinetic energy mode, or a solar cell that supports sensor operation, which is a field worth investigating.
For example, solar starter Alta Devices launched a solar cell this week that is said to produce five times more electricity than existing indoor solar technology, so one such solar cell is ethically only one-fifth of its original size. This will also make the sensor smaller and suitable for more products.
At the same time, researchers at the University of Washington are trying to create a device that can collect energy from radio broadcasts. They claim to have found a way to collect energy from radio waves (cellular networks, television or WiFi), called " Ambient backscatter".
In terms of creating efficient sensors, in addition to developing energy harvesting chips, it is equally important to improve the life of existing batteries. General sensors require a backup or replaceable battery to prevent sudden failure of the energy harvesting components, but the fact is that the performance of these batteries can be better. Now researchers are not only studying how to make them smaller, but also want to make some molded components, such as directly on clothes.
Of course, such components must also include small controllers and wireless broadcasters, so it is also necessary to minimize their power consumption. Regarding wireless broadcasting technology, ZigBee and low-power Bluetooth are good solutions, but power management in the loop is another matter.
In fact, there are many changes in Silicon Valley in this field. This will help us to finally create sensors with long life or no external energy support, so that we can better embrace the arrival of the Internet of Things.
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