With the growing demand for autonomous, maintenance-free electronic systems, energy-harvesting technologies are becoming increasingly important.
EM Microelectronic offers a range of powerful and extremely energy-efficient components that make it possible to effectively utilize energy from the environment—such as light or heat. This enables the realization of battery-less or long-term stable systems for IoT sensing, wearables, or industrial applications.
Portfolio Overview
The graphical overview from EM Microelectronic, shows how individual solutions are assigned to different energy sources (solar or TEG) as well as their function within the overall system—from energy harvesters and PMICs to energy-storage and supply components. This allows you to directly identify the right solution for your application:
In this context, we would like to take a closer look at the EM8900, which is suitable for thermal energy sources and can harvest energy from minimal temperature differences.
The EM8900 – Efficient Thermal Energy Harvesting
The EM8900 is a DC/DC boost converter specifically designed to operate with the extremely low voltages generated by thermoelectric generators (TEGs). Its greatest advantage is its ability to start up at input voltages as low as approximately 5 mV—an operating point that occurs with small temperature differences. This makes it ideally suited for applications where only a few microwatts of continuous power are available.
The EM8900 can be used flexibly and efficiently in maintenance-free systems such as wearables, sensor networks, or industrial monitoring nodes.
The IC does not require any special components and can be used with cost-effective standard transformers.
Its efficiency enables compact and cost-optimized system designs, as TEGs can be dimensioned smaller.
In combination with the optional EM8502 power-management component, a complete solution is created that not only harvests energy but also intelligently manages energy-storage elements such as capacitors or micro-batteries.
Interested? The Ineltek team will be happy to advise you on EM’s energy-harvesting solutions and complementary system components. Get in touch with us directly or send us your inquiry here—we will contact you immediately.