Energy Harvesting Reference Design Enables Power-Efficient Wireless Sensor Node Apps

Silicon Laboratories introduced a 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. It includes wireless network and USB software and a complete circuit design with RF layout, bill of materials (BOM), schematics and Gerber files. The design consists of a solar-powered wireless sensor node that measures temperature, light level and charge level, using an Si10xx wireless MCU to control the sensor system and transmit data wirelessly and a thin-film battery to store harvested energy; a wireless USB adapter that connects the wireless sensor node to a PC for displaying sensor data; the adapter features Silicon Labs’ Si4431 EZRadioPRO transceiver with an MCU running USB-HID class software and EZMac wireless software stack.; and a wireless sensor network GUI that displays data from up to four sensor nodes. The thin film battery used in the energy harvesting reference design has a capacity of 0.7 mAh.

Silicon Laboratories
877-444-3032, www.silabs.com [1]