SUNNYVALE, CA -- Spansion Inc. announces a new family of power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for energy harvesting that can enable a greener Internet of Things (IoT) by eliminating the need for or extending the life of batteries in a multitude of IoT devices from individual wearable electronics to the nodes in wireless sensor networks.
Energy harvesting is the process of capturing and storing energy from ambient sources—including light, vibration and temperature changes—and converting this energy to electricity to be used in place of or to supplement battery power. Battery maintenance can be expensive and batteries can be difficult to replace, unreliable, present a danger to children¹ and produce greenhouse gases. Natural resources such as solar, vibration, and thermal variations are inexhaustible, green sources of energy that can be harvested to fully power or extend battery life in embedded applications.
"Spansion has a long-standing commitment to the environment and has been recognized globally and formally as a green partner by customers, governments and industry watchdogs for our policies, processes, and results in reducing waste and resources," said Tom Sparkman, senior vice president of Spansion's Analog Business Unit. "Our customers can say goodbye to battery usage in their next-generation electronics. Coupled with our low-power MCUs and the energy-budget calculator in the Spansion Easy DesignSim™ support tool, the Spansion Energy Harvesting PMICs offer a differentiated solution that can help our customers offer more eco-friendly devices across a broad spectrum of applications."
The Spansion Energy Harvesting family includes the MB39C811, an ultra-low-power buck² PMIC with dual input that enables efficient harvesting from both solar and vibration energy; and the MB39C831, an ultra-low-voltage boost PMIC for solar or thermal. The Spansion Energy Harvesting family of devices works seamlessly with Spansion FM0+ microcontrollers (MCUs), ultra-low-power microcontrollers (based on the ARM® Cortex®-M0+ core) for industrial and cost-sensitive applications with low-power requirements.
The Spansion Easy DesignSim™, a comprehensive online design support tool with the industry's only energy-budget calculator, simplifies application design by calculating the energy-budget balance while providing a recommended bill of materials (BOM) list that can be purchased online.
Industry Support
Spansion has a strong ecosystem of energy harvesting and storage device partners around the globe. "Spansion's Energy Harvesting PMICs will bring a positive impact to the IoT market. These PMICs harvest natural energy to enable wireless sensor terminal/node to operate without batteries," said Atsushi Hitomi, department head of EDLC Business Unit of TDK. "Combining Spansion's solution with TDK EDLC, Amorphous Silicon Film Solar Cell and RF modules, we can enable wireless sensors to connect to the network everywhere and accelerate cloud-based services."
Spansion Resources:
Ultra Low Power Buck PMIC for Solar and Vibrations Energy Harvesting
(MB39C811) Catalog: http://www.spansion.com/fjdocuments/downloads/EDG/binary/pdf/catalogs/AD405-00007.pdf
Datasheet: http://www.spansion.com/fjdocuments/fj/DATASHEET/e-ds/MB39C811_DS405-00013.pdf
Spansion Solar/Thermal Energy Harvesting Solution (MB39C831)
• Catalog: http://www.spansion.com/fjdocuments/downloads/EDG/binary/pdf/catalogs/AD405-00008.pdf
• Datasheet: http://www.spansion.com/fjdocuments/fj/DATASHEET/e-ds/MB39C831_DS405-00014.pdf
• Spansion Energy Harvesting presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/spansion-energy-harvesting-pmics
• Spansion Energy Harvesting video demonstrations: http://www.youtube.com/spansioninc
For more information, visit http://www.spansion.com