ETEK’s Energy Harvesting Solution for Low-Power IoT

Harvesting Energy PMIC for Low-Power IoT Devices

Low-power IoT products are often deployed where frequent charging or battery replacement is inconvenient. ET95641 is an ambient light energy harvesting PMIC designed to collect energy from high-impedance micro-energy sources such as indoor light, solar cells and thermoelectric generators.

ET95641 combines adaptive MPPT, boost harvesting, buck conversion, charging, and battery management to simplify power design and maximize the use of limited harvested energy.

Why Energy Harvesting IC for IoT?

– Eliminate battery maintenance: Reduce or remove the need for costly field service calls to replace depleted batteries in remote or hard-to-reach installations

– Capture ambient energy: Harvest usable power from indoor lighting, outdoor solar cells, thermoelectric generators (TEGs), and RF sources

– Enable ultra-low-duty-cycle designs: Perfect for IoT sensor nodes, electronic shelf labels, and smart home devices that spend 99%+ of their time in deep sleep

– Shrink form factors: Reduce PCB area and BOM costs by integrating harvesting, charging, and regulation into a single compact PMIC

– Support sustainability goals: Minimize battery waste and enable environmentally friendly IoT deployments

According to industry research, the global energy harvesting market is projected to grow significantly as IoT device deployments accelerate across smart retail, industrial automation, smart buildings, and consumer electronics sectors.

How ET95640/ET95641 Helps

Traditional energy harvesting designs require discrete components for rectification, maximum power point tracking, boost conversion, battery charging, and load regulation. The ET95640/ET95641 family integrates these functions, reducing component count and development time while improving system efficiency.

Typical Applications

1.Low-Light Remote Controls

Modern smart home remote controls require ultra-long battery life—or better yet, no batteries at all. A photovoltaic cell can harvest indoor ambient light and feed collected energy into the ET95640/ET95641, which manages continuous harvesting and MPPT optimization, trickle charging of a backup rechargeable battery or supercapacitor, and regulated power delivery to the microcontroller and RF transceiver. This architecture enables self-powered remote controls that operate indefinitely under typical indoor lighting conditions.

2.Night Lights and Sensor Nodes

For low-power products combining PIR sensors, microcontrollers, and LEDs, the ET95641 provides a complete power subsystem. It manages harvested input energy from ambient sources during daylight hours, seamlessly switches to regulated battery backup during low-light periods, supports burst current demands for LED illumination and wireless transmission, and maintains ultra-low quiescent current during standby intervals. Ideal applications include smart home security sensors, occupancy detectors, and wireless environmental monitors.

3.Electronic Shelf Labels and Other Low-Duty IoT Devices

Electronic shelf labels represent one of the fastest-growing segments for energy harvesting technology. The ET95641 is ideally suited for ESL and similar low-duty-cycle IoT devices because it delivers ultra-low standby power consumption (critical for devices that update displays only a few times per day), compact power architecture (fits within severe space constraints of thin label form factors), periodic peak load support (provides burst energy for e-paper display updates and wireless synchronization), and maintenance-free operation (eliminates the logistics burden of battery replacement across thousands of retail shelf labels). Other applicable low-duty IoT devices include smart parking sensors, asset tracking tags, agricultural soil monitors, and industrial predictive maintenance sensors.

Find the Right Energy Harvesting PMIC

ETEK offers a range of energy harvesting power management ICs tailored to different input sources, MPPT requirements, battery configurations, and system power needs. Whether you are designing electronic shelf labels, smart home sensors, or industrial IoT nodes, our ET95640/ET95641 family provides the integration, efficiency, and reliability your application demands.

Explore our product selection guide at www.etekmicro.com to find the energy harvesting PMIC that best fits your application.

Contact our technical support team for application guidance, reference designs, and evaluation samples.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: What energy sources can the ET95641 harvest from?

A: The ET95641 is designed to harvest from high-impedance micro-energy sources including indoor light, solar cells, and thermoelectric generators (TEGs).

Q: What types of IoT devices benefit most from energy harvesting PMICs?

A: Devices with low duty cycles and long standby periods benefit most. Typical applications include electronic shelf labels, smart home remote controls, wireless sensor nodes, occupancy detectors, and asset tracking tags.

Q: How does adaptive MPPT improve energy harvesting efficiency?

A: Adaptive Maximum Power Point Tracking continuously adjusts the operating point of the energy source to extract maximum available power. This is especially important for solar and TEG sources whose optimal operating voltage varies with light intensity or temperature differential.