Alta Devices to Enable Self-Powered IoT Nodes

Alta Devices, Inc. announced today that its mobile power technology produces up to 5-times more power from indoor light than other commercially available solar technologies. This means that for a given power requirement, an Alta Devices solar cell powering a wireless sensor can be one-fifth the size, and since the technology is flexible, can be integrated onto a variety of surfaces. This dramatic improvement over alternatives results from being well matched to the spectrum of indoor light and superior conversion efficiency.

Within the next 10 years, the Internet of Things (IoT) will emerge and billions of sensors will be deployed throughout homes, offices, and factories to measure everything from motion and location, to temperature and humidity. Many of these sensors will require power and be as physically small as possible. Alta’s technology enables the harvesting of energy from light in the smallest form factor possible, and outperforms other technologies in both sunlight and indoor lighting conditions.

Chris Norris, Alta Devices president and CEO explained, “We are on the verge of a massive revolution in data gathering and device connectivity. Big data starts with small sensors, and many of these devices will need to be self-powered. Our technology has a small, lightweight, and flexible form factor, and its substantial power output under a wide variety of lighting conditions opens up new use cases for solar.”

Today, there are a variety of solar technologies used for indoor light energy harvesting. These include dye-sensitized, organic, and amorphous silicon. The typical conversion efficiencies of these technologies range from 5% to 12% under one-sun. Alta Device’s mobile power technology, based on gallium arsenide, currently holds the world record for single junction, one-sun, conversion efficiency at 28.8%.