This article was written by Stacey Higginbotham, who has written an 11-year column for technical and financial publications. This article analyzes a bottleneck in the development of the Internet of Things, that is, the long-term continuous function of the sensor cannot be broken through.
If you can imagine a world where sensors are everywhere, they are everywhere, inside walls, under roads, and inside any objects, but sadly, you have to replace these sensors every six months or one year. Even if we make more products that can be used in sensors, we are still limited by the battery's endurance. But Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, ARM and other hardware technology giants are trying their best to develop sensors that can supply their own energy.
Energy is actually ubiquitous. For these chip development companies, the biggest challenge is to find a way to store energy for continuous use. Energy like solar energy is not always available. Another challenge is how to install such low-energy chips in sensors.
There are currently four types of energy harvesting chips on the market:
Kinetic energy: Action-based charging, which has been used for a long time, these chips are mainly used for charging watches, for example, or tied to some mobile devices.
Thermal energy: This type of chip generally collects energy from the temperature difference, so it is more suitable for some devices close to the human body.
Light energy: This is like a very small solar panel. All solar panels face a challenge, that is, how to maximize energy collection when there is sunlight, regardless of the size of the solar panel.
Magnetic energy: Many companies are trying to collect energy from radio waves, but have not been successful for decades.
As can be seen from the above icons provided by Texas Instruments, what different environmental conditions are required for different energy harvesting chips to drive specific devices.
Similar technologies are not very new, but the market's demand for these wireless sensors is growing, thanks to the rapid development of the Internet of Things. Many companies are now motivated to develop more efficient energy harvesting chips and systems. Whether it is an implantable medical device that may use kinetic energy mode or a solar cell that supports sensor operation, this is an area worthy of research.
For example, solar startup Alta Devices launched a solar cell this week, which is said to produce 5 times more electricity than existing indoor solar technology, so such a solar cell is ethically only one-fifth of its original size This will also make the sensor smaller and suitable for more products.
At the same time, research scholars at the University of Washington are trying to create a device that can collect energy from radio broadcasts. They claim to have found a method to collect energy from radio waves (cellular network, TV or WiFi), called " "Ambient backscatter".
In addition to the development of energy-harvesting chips, it is equally important to improve the life of existing batteries in the creation of highly efficient sensors. Generally, sensors need to have backup or replaceable batteries to prevent sudden failure of energy collection components, but the fact is that the performance of these batteries can be better. Now researchers are not only studying how to make them smaller, but also want to make some shaped components, such as directly on the clothes.
Of course, such components must also include small controllers and wireless broadcasting devices, so they also need to reduce their power consumption as much as possible. Regarding wireless broadcasting technology, ZigBee and Bluetooth low energy are good solutions, but the power management in the loop is another matter.
In fact, there have been many changes in this area in Silicon Valley, which will also help us to finally create sensors with long life spans or no external energy support at all, so that we can better embrace the arrival of the Internet of Things.
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