What if you could reduce costs, reduce space, and power your devices? Discover how a PMIC family is changing energy harvesting for low-power applications.
Nexperia is expanding its energy harvesting portfolio with the NEH71x0 power management IC (PMIC) family. The PMIC line combines performance, cost-efficiency, and versatility, setting a new standard for low-power applications. Unlike competing products, these devices eliminate the need for an external inductor, reducing the cost of circuit board space and bill-of-materials (BOM). Applications include remote controls, key fobs, smart tags, asset trackers, occupancy sensors, environmental monitors, wearables, keyboards, tyre pressure monitors, and IoT applications.
The company claims that these PMICs provide a power management solution for energy harvesting, enabling engineers to extend battery life, recharge batteries or supercapacitors, and eliminate batteries in some designs with its cold start feature. With the PMICs, designers can choose from multiple power sources such as light, kinetic/piezo, or temperature gradient. With an input power range from 15μW to 100mW, these energy-harvesting ICs convert energy with an efficiency of up to 95%. These devices include an on-chip maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm to optimize the energy harvested, which adjusts every 0.5 seconds, making the PMIC responsive to changing environmental conditions.
The PMIC family integrates power management features to protect batteries and storage elements, including over-voltage protection, low-voltage detection, and over-current protection. Adding an LDO regulator and USB charging reduces the BOM cost and simplifies the design. The NEH710BU variant includes I2C programmability and measurement readings, giving engineers more flexibility and control in their designs.
“The NEH71x0 family addresses key challenges in energy harvesting by offering an inductor-less solution with integrated power management features,” said Simon van der Jagt, Energy Harvesting Product Group Leader at Nexperia. “This enables customers to lower costs while delivering an innovative solution for various applications. By optimizing battery life and reducing the need for costly, polluting battery replacements, the NEH71x0 contributes to a more sustainable future of electronics.”
