e-peas AEM30940 RF Energy Harvesting IC is an integrated Ambient Energy Manager (AEM) that can extract DC power from a piezo generator, a microturbine generator, or any other high-frequency 868MHz or 915Mhz RF input, simultaneously storing energy in a rechargeable element and supplying the system with two independent regulated voltages. The AEM30940 is designed to extend battery lifetime and ultimately eliminate the primary energy storage element in a large range of wireless applications, such as industrial monitoring, home automation, transportation, and smart agriculture.
The AEM30940 harvests the available input current up to 110mA. It integrates an ultra-low power boost converter to charge a storage element, such as a Li-ion battery, a thin film battery, a supercapacitor, or a conventional capacitor. The boost converter operates with input voltages in a range from 50mV to 5V. With its unique cold-start circuit, the AEM30940 can start operating with empty storage elements at input voltage as low as 380mV and an input power as low as 3µW.
The low-voltage supply of the AEM30940 can be used to drive a microcontroller at 1.2V or 1.8V. The high-voltage supply may typically drive a radio transceiver at a configurable voltage between 1.8V and 4.1V. Both are driven by highly-efficient LDO (Low Dropout) regulators for low noise and high stability.
The AEM30940 integrates all the active elements for powering a typical wireless sensor. Only five capacitors and two inductors are required, available in the small 0402 and 0603 sizes, respectively. With only seven external components, integration is maximum, footprint and BOM are minimum, optimizing the time-to-market and the costs of wireless sensor node designs.
The e-peas AEM30940 is offered in a QFN28 package, with a wide -40ºC to +125ºC operating temperature range.