Supercapacitors Enable Small Energy Harvesters To Power IoT Applications (Energy Storage Innovations Europe 2019)

Small energy harvesters are a natural way to power wireless IoT sensors and other applications. The environment has abundant energy, but it can only be harvested at low power while wireless sensors need periodic peak power bursts to collect and transmit data. Supercapacitors are an ideal power buffer enabling the use of a low power energy source supplying 10's - 100's of µW. The supercapacitor's high C and low Equivalent Series Resistance enable it to supply the energy at the power needed to collect and transmit data. We will present case studies for solar cells powering LoRa; solar cells powering a sensor reporting by BLE; and a vibration transducer powering a WiFi internet gateway all using an energy harvester and a supercapacitor as the storage element.

Anthony Kongats is CEO and Founder of CAP-XX Ltd. Established in 1997, and listed on the London AIM stock Exchange in 2006, the company develops, manufactures and sells high power and thin prismatic supercapacitors.

 

Mr Kongats has been in the electronics component industry since 1991. Before that he worked for McKinsey & Co. Inc.

 

Mr Kongats holds a B.Eng (Hons), B.Sc, and MBA. He is married with children and lives in Sydney, Australia.

CAP-XX develops, manufactures and sells thin, prismatic supercapacitors with high power and energy density for use in space-constrained electronic devices. CAP-XX has also developed large supercapacitor cells for automotive and grid storage applications. Supercapacitors resolve the performance limitations of batteries and other current-limited power supplies, and provide backup power if the primary power source fails.

 

CAP-XX supercapacitors, which are also produced under license by Murata, enable manufacturers to make smaller, thinner, longer-running and more feature-rich devices such as camera phones, solid state drives, handheld PCs and battery-free condition-monitoring systems using the company's BritePower™ architectures. CAP-XX's singular focus on supercapacaitors enable it to offer superior technical and applications support and continue to develop innovative products. The company is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London.