Silicon Laboratories Inc., a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, introduced the industry’s most energy-efficient wireless sensor node solution powered by a solar energy harvesting source. The new turnkey energy harvesting reference design enables developers to implement self-sustaining, ultra-low-power wireless sensor networks for home and building automation, security systems, industrial control applications, medical monitoring devices, asset tracking systems and infrastructure and agricultural monitoring systems. The market for energy harvesting devices is poised to grow exponentially this decade. IDTechEx forecasts that more than ten billion energy harvesting devices will ship by 2019 – a 20x increase over the roughly 500 million units that shipped in 2009. Although systems powered by harvested energy sources have existed for many years, developers have been challenged to implement wireless sensor nodes within very low power budgets. Silicon Labs has met this design challenge by creating a wireless energy harvesting system based on its Si10xx wireless microcontroller (MCU) family. The industry’s most power-efficient, single-chip MCU and wireless transceiver solution, the Si10xx can perform control and wireless interface functions at ultra-low power levels.
Silicon Laboratories Inc.
www.silabs.com