Analog Devices’ scales-up Energy Harvesting of Devices in Energy Scarce IoT Applications

Analog Devices announces a power management unit (PMU) tailored to yield faster and more efficient energy harvesting in IoT applications in energy-scarce environments. Claimed to come in a unique circuit design, the ADP509x is touted as to be among the most efficient energy harvesting PMUs on the market, converting harvested power down to the 16 μW to 100mW range with only sub-μW operation losses delivering the fastest cold-startup time available today.

Solving long-treaded energy harvesting of devices in low-energy conditions resulting in long delays before the device can start sensing, processing, and transmitting – the new device solves these problems with an innovative multiple-power-path design, which enables faster startups and smoother operation.

“We believe the ADP509x is a big step toward enabling new autonomous applications for IoT,”said Michael Murray, general manager of Industrial IoT, Analog Devices. “We’ve been collaborating with other companies like Alta Devices, which makes extremely innovative and efficient solar cells, to explore what new possibilities exist by pairing the most efficient energy harvesting components together. Not only will this have huge benefits for traditional IoT applications, but it will also lower some significant hurdles in emerging applications such as e-textiles and other wearables.”

The key barrier for energy harvesting is that in many applications energy from the environment is only available at very low levels (for example, low-light indoor solar harvesting), and periodically not at all. This requires power management solutions that can not only enable satisfactory system operation with very little energy, but also efficiently manage energy storage devices to satisfy energy demand at times when no energy is being harvested, writes the release.

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