Texas Instruments has introduced power management ICs for energy harvesting. The boost charger for nano power energy harvesting manages the microwatts to milliwatts of power generated from solar, thermoelectric, electromagnetic and vibration, and stores the extracted energy in various storage elements, including Li-ion batteries and super capacitors. The bq25504 also includes circuitry to protect the energy storage element from over-voltage and under-voltage conditions and to kick-start the system when the battery is deeply discharged.
The ICs can benefit wireless sensor networks for area, industrial, water and waste, and structural monitoring, along with consumer and medical applications. They feature quiescent current of 330nA, and conversion efficiency of above 80% maximise the energy extracted from the energy harvester. The maximum power point tracking optimises energy extracted from DC harvesters, such as solar panels under varying light conditions and TEG (thermoelectric generators) under varying thermal conditions.
The boost charger IC can be used with many energy sources and energy storage elements, such as different battery chemistries or super capacitors. The ICs also feature low cold start voltage of 330mV, allows them to start up from single-cell solar panels under low light, as well as TEGs with low temperature differences and other low-voltage sources. Battery OK indicator allows conditional enabling of external loads and protects the storage element.
The company offers tools and support to speed the implementation of low-power energy harvesting, including: bq25504 evaluation module and bq25504 EVM user's guide. The IC boost converter is available in a 3x3mm very thin quad flat non-leaded package.
