Energy harvesting PMIC from Nexperia enables environmentally friendly energy-autonomous low-power devices

Nexperia announced an expansion to its range of Power ICs with Energy Harvesting solutions to simplify and enhance the performance of low-power internet of things (IoT) and other embedded applications. The NEH2000BY is a high-performance power management integrated circuit (PMIC) which recharges a battery or storage capacitor using energy harvested from ambient sources, such as light (which can be harvested using a photovoltaic cell). As a result, Nexperia’s NEH2000BY will enable the development of electronic devices that are self-powered, smaller, and environmentally friendly. Furthermore, this energy harvesting solution can help mitigate the environmental impact of the billions of batteries produced and discarded each year.

Nexperia’s NEH2000BY PMIC makes it much easier to design energy harvesting solutions which can be up to 20x smaller than other competing offerings and do not require manual optimization for individual applications. In addition, the PMIC was designed without inductors, simplifying PCB design, and significantly reducing overall BOM and board size, with a 12 mm² assembly area.

To achieve the highest conversion efficiency, energy harvesting solutions must be able to adapt as the ambient energy source fluctuates. The NEH2000BY performs Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), an adaptive algorithm to optimize how it transfers harvested energy and to achieve optimum average conversion efficiency by up to 80% (more info).