Extend Battery Life with Harvested Energy (Energy Harvesting and Storage USA 2013)

Scavenging energy from readily available harvesting sources can at a minimum significantly extend battery life in wireless sensor and other applications. In many instances, applications can actually be powered indefinitely from harvested energy eliminating the need for batteries. This presentation will discuss available sources of harvested energy, characteristics of the transducers used to create electrical power, and how to efficiently generate usable power. Solutions to allow seamless switchover from a harvested source to a battery in order to extend battery life or facilitate more system functionality for the same battery life will be presented along with energy harvesting-only powered applications. Topics ranging from generator open circuit voltage, maximum power point tracking and charge storage methods for optimizing available system power will also be discussed.

David Loconto is a Design Center Manager at Linear Technology and oversees day-to-day new product development activity for more than 30 people, targeted primarily in the portable power management and energy harvesting areas. Dave has personally designed and released numerous integrated circuits for Linear Technology and previously for Unitrode Corporation. He received his BSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and an MSEE from the University of California Berkeley

Linear Technology Corporation has been acquired by Analog Devices, Inc. Please refer to Analog Devices booth P27.