Exploring Energy Harvesting, Ultra-Low Power Systems, And The Path To Self-Powered IOT (Energy Harvesting USA 2017)

The proliferation of IoT devices and the increasing complexity of end-user applications requires a balance of processing capacity, reliable bi-directional communication and power management with the need for longer battery life. This can make designing for these devices especially difficult. While advances in energy harvesting and ultra-low power systems have helped improve battery life and overall power efficiency, nothing has yet been able to achieved the nirvana of self-powered IoT.

 

In this presentation, we will share what we have learned on our journey to build a battery-less IoT device, including the challenges and trade-offs in energy harvesters, boost converters, power management chips, ultra-low power microcontrollers, and mesh radios.

Greg McNeil is Vice President Product Design Innovation Labs located in the Silicon Valley. Flex (NASDAQ: FLEX) which is a $25B, industry-leading, Fortune Global 500 end-to-end supply chain solutions company with a global workforce of 200,000 and operations in over 30 countries.

Prior to his current role, Mr. McNeil held vice president level product development and product management positions within large corporations. At Apple, Microsoft, Cadence Design Systems, Sun Microsystems and Palm, he designed world-class products and led teams responsible for product development and product management.

In addition to his corporate experience, Mr. McNeil has also held numerous positions at start-up companies. He helped to change the landscape of the living room at WebTV Networks; created a new class of servers at Cobalt Networks; developed RFID based credit card payment solutions at ViVOtech; and founded the media player company, VVM Systems.

Mr. McNeil holds degrees in Engineering and Business from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (BSME), Stanford University (MSME) and Santa Clara University (MBA), respectively. Prior to his technology career, he spent nearly a decade as a professional cyclist, competing worldwide, representing the United States in two Cycling World Championships, and one world record. More recently, in 2013, he won the Duathlon Age-Group World Championships.

Flex is a leading sketch-to-scale™ solutions company that designs and builds intelligent products for a connected world. With more than 200,000 professionals across 30 countries and a promise to help make the world Live smarter™, the company provides innovative design, engineering, manufacturing, real-time supply chain insight and logistics services to companies of all sizes in various industries and end-markets.