Energy is harnessed from natural light,
vibrations and heat
 |
| (Source: energymicro.com) |
MIT
researchers have developed wireless computer chips that are capable of
harnessing power from natural light, vibrations and heat.
Anantha
Chandrakasan, an MIT professor, led the MIT team in creating the new computer
chips. These chips have the ability to run at very low power levels and collect
energy from all three above-mentioned ambient power sources.
The chip
consists of a circuit that can collect from many different environmental sources of energy, such as vibrations from traffic on a bridge. Many chips need
separate control circuits for each energy source because of certain
requirements for the collection of each. Many circuits that harvest thermal
energy produce about 0.02 to 0.15 volts while those that harvest from
vibrations produce up to 5 volts.
However,
this new chip from MIT can collect power from natural light, vibrations and
heat -- all on one circuit.
Aside from
the ability to collect energy from three different environmental sources, the
chip can operate at low-power levels. It is able to do this using a dual-path
architecture where the sensor can either be powered directly from the source or
from a storage device. This makes it much more efficient, as it uses a single
time-shared inductor, which helps operate multiple converters at once.
A circuit
like this means a battery-free monitoring system, which could be applied to
environmental sensors and biomedical devices at some point. Having energy
harvesting capabilities in many environments can increase power from certain
systems like wireless sensor nodes.
The chip is
also helpful because only one or maybe two energy sources may be available at a
given time. With three possibilities at once, this is no longer an issue.
Source: MIT
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