News

nanoPower Forum Program Announced

April 02, 2007 by Jeff Shepard

"Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting," "Fuel Cells and Thin-Film Batteries," "Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting," "Wireless Sensor Networks," "Energy Harvesting Components," and "System Design Considerations" are among the general session topics that will be discussed at the 2007 nanoPower Forum (nPF ’07) to be held at the Marriott, San Jose, California on June 4 to 6. Speakers at the Plenary Session will include: Bradley J. Mitchell, Product Development Manager with The Boeing Company, Peter Spies, Group Manager with the Fraunhofer Institute and Roy Freeland, CEO of Perpetuum, Ltd. This year’s nPF will also feature a Roundtable Discussion titled: "Can Energy Harvesting Support the Power Needs of Low-Power Devices?"

"This year’s nPF will be the industry’s showcase for the latest developments in energy harvesting and power management solutions for low-power wireless systems," stated Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group. "We are excited about the outstanding program at the inaugural nanoPower Forum. Over two-thirds of our speakers are senior executives."

The worldwide low-power wireless market is projected to reach over 200 million units by 2010. Since an average device may require up to five voltage rails, that’s up to a 1 billion unit opportunity for power semiconductor companies, according to the latest research from Darnell Group. Energy harvesting, thin-film batteries, and other emerging power management technologies can be the enabler of wireless sensor network adoption. In fact, battery maintenance and replacement are cited as the "biggest reason to use energy harvesting." The first markets for new energy harvesting technologies have been applications that can’t be implemented with batteries.

nPF ’07 is organized by Darnell Group and PowerPulse.Net. This focused three-day international conference will serve an audience of decision makers who are interested in learning about and contributing to the latest practical advancements related to the emerging area of "low-power devices" (LPDs) and systems. LPDs are being deployed for wireless applications such as mesh networks, wireless sensor and control systems, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, and so on. Energy harvesting, energy storage and power management are some of the major issues in terms of the commercial rollout of next-generation LPD systems. Participants will have an opportunity to meet and talk with top executives and technical professionals in the fields of advanced batteries, power management, low power RF technologies, energy harvesting, networking protocols, and related fields. nPF ’07 will include exhibits, technical sessions, networking opportunities, and more.

The nPF ’07 Advisory Committee includes representatives from Advanced Cerametrics, Analog Devices, Advanced Analogic Technologies, EnOcean, Fraunhofer Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Intel, LV Sensors, Microchip, Moteiv, Motorola, Nanotron, Powercast, Lightning Switch, Randy Frank & Associates, Texas Instruments, Tyndall Institute, Ubiwave, University of California Berkeley, Varta Microbattery and the ZigBee Alliance. EDN Magazine is the official media sponsor for nPF ’07.