Low-power energy harvesting technology helps wireless sensors last longer

Most of today's wireless sensor nodes use battery power, so they still require a lot of manpower and material cost for maintenance after the completion of the installation; and sensors with low-power energy harvesting technology can achieve almost endless operation, which can save significant maintenance. Cost, especially when this sensor is installed in a deserted area.

An intelligent environment means the automation of homes and buildings in the future. These automations depend on a variety of sensors, controllers, and actuators that play multiple roles and are distributed throughout the environment, and such distribution creates some technical challenges. For example, each sensor needs its own power supply, and monitoring low battery conditions is also a standard operating procedure; however, battery replacement requires human assistance. This paper aims to propose a solution that uses an energy harvesting (Energy HarvesTIng) type, low-power sensor; when the sensor has to transmit a considerable amount of data, or perform periodic measurements, the wireless sensor driven by the energy harvesting It seems to be a good fit. The use of energy harvesting technology allows these sensors to be completely maintenance-free for years, while sensors that use batteries can run out of energy in a matter of months.

Various wireless sensor implementations are available today, but the overall cost of the system does not depend solely on the hardware. Costs implemented according to different industry standards can also result in an increase in overall cost. It includes not only additional hardware and software requirements, but also some less obvious items, such as ZigBee and Bluetooth 4.0 (Figure 1) certification fees, and may even have royalties. Expenditure.

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of wired and wireless connection environment

This article provides some simple low-power, energy-acquisition solutions that can be used to implement maintenance-free wireless sensors. It also shows how to reduce overall costs while providing stable performance, especially for cost-effective wireless network areas.

Imported energy harvesting technology, wireless sensor reliability increased

The energy harvesting system basically stores energy (whether using a rechargeable battery such as NiMH or using a super capacitor) for later use when needed. The main difference between the energy harvesting type wireless sensor and the battery driven type sensor is that the battery driven type wireless sensor is designed to operate with a battery for a certain period of time, and the two are basically the same. The advantage of an energy harvesting sensor node is that it can harvest energy indefinitely for future use. Usually, the amount or energy it can collect is very limited (limited by price or actual size), so the energy used by the wireless transmitter and the sensor itself must be balanced so that the acquisition technology is not excessively consumed. The energy provided.

There are various energy harvesting components available on the market today. The most common component used is solar panels. They come in different sizes, including large solar panels made up of multiple solar cells in series or in parallel, as well as very small solar cells used in handheld computers or toys.

Another type is radio frequency (RF) acquisition components. Such components use antennas to receive radio waves and convert them into electrical energy. This is a different type of energy harvesting component that requires a high unit of RF energy. Electro-mechanical acquisition components typically use dynamic magnetic components near the inductive coil. Thermo-electrical energy harvesting elements generate small amounts of electrical energy from temperature differences that operate according to the Seebeck Effect principle.

When a sensor or controller joins wireless capabilities, some inexperienced users will only consider RF industry standards such as ZigBee or Bluetooth. However, depending on the actual application needs, certain standards may not meet the real needs of reality. In general, it is often necessary to adopt specific standards when the final product must be compatible with products currently on the market. Creating a product that is compatible with other products is indeed a more complex business decision. When considering whether to provide compatibility, you must carefully consider the pros and cons. In some cases, compatibility may be necessary (such as a headset microphone for mobile phones), but in other cases, it is impossible to increase compatibility, or the cost will become too much. Expensive (such as a simple infrared remote control).

Communication technology certification costs high RF transmitter design considerations

Many times, when designers plan to implement a specific RF standard, they only pay attention to the overall hardware cost, but ignore the cost of implementing a standard. Any RF transmitter must be certified and the non-RF transmitter must still be FCC or CE certified. However, their operation is relatively simple and inexpensive. FCC certification is inevitable for any wireless sensor, so this cost factor can be put aside when designers are comparing different solutions.

The overall cost of using the standard will depend on the wireless standard being implemented and may be much higher than originally anticipated. If you use the cost of a special standard, it will be much more expensive than just hardware and software. These costs typically come from organizational membership, standards compliance testing, specific characterization tests, specific hardware Sniffer tools, and more. The ZigBee certification costs about $3,000, which is just the cost of the certification itself. But in fact, before applying for any certification, we have to do some specific pre-tests and estimate whether this component can pass this certification. Professional test equipment can be rented for $750 a month.

At first glance, these extra costs don't seem to be very high. However, many times the adoption of specific standards also allows users to pay the cost of membership, or it may be a premium that must be paid. The cost of certification for RF standards is always translated into additional costs and additional delays until the product is launched.

The unit cost of the hardware itself is usually in the range of $1-1.5 for every 10,000 units. When only a low number of products are produced, all of the above costs will have an impact on the overall cost per unit. If we only consider the FCC, the cost of certification is about $10,000, and this situation will lead to a doubling of unit prices. The certification of the RF standard (cost of the certification itself, pre-test and RF test equipment) will easily exceed $10,000, resulting in significant cost pressures.

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