Practical Designs with Thin-Film Batteries and Energy Harvesting Featured

Practical energy harvesting, thin-film batteries, and power management solutions for low-power wireless systems will be spotlighted at Darnell’s third annual nanoPower Forum (nPF ’09), May 18-20 in San Jose, California. All are critical technologies enabling wireless applications such as mesh networks, wireless sensor and control applications, microelectromechanical (MEMs) systems, and so on. nPF ’09 will provide engineers with the latest design techniques and powering solutions.

“Mesh networks, wireless sensor and control systems, industrial/building automation and a variety of medical, military and other applications are being enabled by the latest advances in energy harvesting, thin-film batteries and power management,” observed Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group. “This year, our nanoPower Forum will focus on the latest practical solutions to the increasing complexity of wringing out the maximum performance from today’s advanced ultra-low power devices,” he continued. Ten examples of practical presentations at nPF ’09 include:

* Living Life Under 1μW – Extreme Deeply Embedded Computing, Mark Buccini, Director, Worldwide Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments

* Wireless Body Area Network – Today and Tomorrow’s Potentials, Didier Sagan, Product Line Marketing Manager, Medical Products Group, Zarlink Semiconductor

* Wireless Power Transfer for Hearing Aids, Implanted Medical Devices and Consumer Electronics, Kevin O’Handley, VP Business Development, Ferro Solutions

* Harvesting RF Energy and Powering a Wireless Sensor Node Using a Supercapacitor, Pierre Mars/Charlie Greene, VP Applications Engineering/Head of Technology Platforms, CAP-XX/Powercast

* Energy Harvesting for Practical Deployment in Building Energy Management Applications, Mike Hayes, Programme Manager, Wireless Sensors for Building Energy Management, Tyndall National Institute

* Thin-Film Micro-Energy Cells Combined with Energy Harvesting Complete the Ideal Low-Power Wireless Sensor Node, Joe Keating, Applications Engineering Manager, Infinite Power Solutions

* Efficient Power Management for Low Power Energy Harvesting, Regan Zane, Associate Professor, University of Colorado

* Energy Harvesting Embedded Systems Using the MSP430 MCU, Adrian Valenzuela, Product Marketing Engineer, Texas Instruments

* Energy Harvesting Powered Wireless Sensor Node and Asset Tracking Solutions in Random Vibration Environments, Anurag Kasyap, Mechanical Analyst, Alexander Edrington, Product Development Manager, Timothy Michalski, Vice President and General Manager, AdaptivEnergy

* The Advantages of Microcontrollers in Low-Power Applications, Keith Curtis, Technical Staff Engineer, Microchip

Engineers who miss nPF ’09 will have to wait another year to learn about practical applications for energy harvesting and thin-film batteries, according to Shepard, who added that a lot of progress had taken place in these technologies in the past year. Energy harvesting, energy storage and power management are some of the major issues in terms of the commercial rollout of next-generation of low-power systems. Participants will have an opportunity to meet and talk with top executives and technical professionals in the fields of advanced batteries, power management, ultra-low power RF technologies, energy harvesting, networking protocols, and related fields.