Energy harvesting and solar charging ICs from ST supply the Internet of Things ecosystem by extracting energy from ambient light or thermal differences to power small devices in applications such as wireless sensors for smart lighting, home and building automation, remote monitoring, presence detection and industrial equipment controls as well as wearables and fitness sensors.
These ICs make the small devices energy autonomous and protect the environment by reducing the use – and waste – of primary batteries, while reducing the heavy impact of cabling cost and enhancing flexibility in legacy buildings. Given their ability to “cut the cord” and replace primary batteries, hundreds of millions of these devices could be deployed in environments such as offices, buildings, hotels, industrial sites, airports, malls, remote monitoring infrastructures and wearable fitness / healthcare devices.
SPV1050 energy harvesting and SPV1040 high-efficiency solar battery charger
ST’s SPV1050 is an extremely high-efficiency power-management and battery-charger solution for wireless sensor nodes that harvests energy from both photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric generators (TEGs) operating up to 400 mW output power. The SPV1050 achieves impressive energy-conversion performance thanks to the embedded maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm, by guarantying up to 99% of maximum power extracted from the harvesting available source. It is compatible with any battery chemistry, including thin-film solid state, super-capacitor, NiMH, NiCd and lithium-ion/lithium polymer. In fact, it applies the typical CC-CV charge profile to optimize the charge and to guarantee its lifetime and overall system safety.
The SPV1040 is a monolithic solar energy harvester based on a step-up converter configuration optimized to work in outdoor conditions with an output power up to 3 W, and with embedded MPPT algorithm that operates over a 0.45 to 5.5 V input voltage range. The proprietary algorithm maximizes the energy extraction from the source and the transfer to the load is given by the very high conversion efficiency. Fundamental features like over-current, over-voltage and over-temperature guarantee battery and overall system safety and along with the other specs address some typical applications like outdoor environmental sensors, solar lanterns, garden and poles lighting, solar bags and portable mid power consumer.
