Extend Remote Sensor Battery Life with Thermal Energy
Harvesting
Dave Salerno Wireless and wired sensor systems are often found in environments rife with ambient energy,
ideal for powering the sensors themselves. For instance, energy harvesting can significantly
extend the lifetime of installed batteries, especially when power requirements are low,
reducing long-term maintenance costs and down time. In spite of these benefits, a number
of adoption roadblocks persist. The most significant is that ambient energy sources are
often intermittent, or insufficient to power the sensor system continuously, where primary
battery power sources are extremely reliable over the course of their rated life. System
designers may be reluctant to upgrade systems to harvest ambient energy, especially when
seamless integration is paramount. The LTC3107 aims to change their minds by making it
easy to seamlessly extend battery life, by adding energy harvesting to existing designs.
With the LTC3107, a point-of-load energy
harvester requires little space, just enough
room for the LTC3107’s 3mm × 3mm
DFN package and a few external components. By generating an output voltage
that tracks that of the existing primary
battery, the LTC3107 can be seamlessly
adopted to bring the cost-savings of
free thermal energy harvesting to new
and existing battery-powered designs.
The LTC3107, along with a small source
of thermal energy, can extend battery life, …