IC harvests ambient light or thermal energy

Suitable for applications with power requirements from a few microwatts to several milliwatts, the SPV1050 is suitable for both indoor and outdoor consumer and industrial applications using either solar or thermal energy. Protecting the environment with reduced CO₂ emissions while eliminating batteries and power cabling, in the future, ST expect hundreds of millions of these devices to operate from tiny quantities of harvested ambient energy in environments such as office buildings, houses, hotels, industrial sites, transportation infrastructure and electric vehicles.

The SPV1050 has a built-in buck-boost converter which allows it to connect to either TEG or indoor/outdoor solar-energy harvesting modules by providing a wide input-voltage range from 180mV to 8V. Highly efficient, the energy-harvesting IC achieves an average operating efficiency of 90%, allowing fast battery charging even at low input power levels, and minimum MPPT accuracy of 90%, maximising energy extraction from solar or TEG sources. An integrated battey charging controller uses highly accurate under-voltage and end-of-charge thresholds, and provides safe control logic to prevent excessive discharging for longer battery life.

Matteo Lo Presti, Group Vice President and General Manager, Industrial and Power Conversion Division, STMicroelectronics, comments: “Energy harvesting delivers environmental benefits and helps reduce equipment ownership costs, and is used increasingly as energy-conversion efficiency rises and typical system power demands fall. The tremendous operational and energy-harvesting efficiency of the SPV1050, combined with its unparalleled flexibility and feature integration, enables engineers to realize many new opportunities in industrial and consumer markets.”

Scheduled for production in Q1 2014, the SPV1050 is available in a 20-lead QFN 3x3x1mm package or in 20-bump WLCSP tested and unsawn wafers. Sampling now, budgetary pricing is $1.15 (USD) for orders of up to 1,000 pieces.