Date: 27/10/2010

Microchip and Powercast develops RF energy harvesting kit for wireless sensors based on PIC MCUs

Microchip Technology Inc.and Powercast Corporation have unveiled the Lifetime Power Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Wireless Sensors featuring PIC microcontrollers with eXtreme Low Power (XLP) Technology. This kit is composed of a 3-watt Powercaster transmitter as the power source, two P2110 Powerharvester receiver evaluation boards, two custom-designed wireless sensor boards, the XLP 16-bit Development Board pre-loaded with jointly developed application software, an IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver and other accessories. This kit is suitable to demonstrate and develop smart-energy, wireless-sensor applications.The included transmitter can wirelessly power sensor devices from more than 40 feet away.

The new development kit combines Powercast's RF transmitter and receiver energy-harvesting system, which broadcasts and converts RF energy into DC power, with Microchip's XLP PIC microcontrollers. The three main design challenges faced by designers of wireless sensor applications fall into the categories of power, location and wireless communication.

Power
Powercast's RF energy harvesting system uses broadcasted RF energy for wire- and battery-free operation, or to wirelessly charge battery-based systems. In the Lifetime Power kit, the Powercaster transmitter broadcasts RF energy to the Powerharvester receiver, which can be embedded into an OEM's micro-power device. The receiver then converts the RF energy and presents it as a regulated power supply to Microchip's PIC24F microcontroller.

Location
The broadcasted RF energy is controllable (can be scheduled, continuous or on-demand) and works in locations where other potentially intermittent energy-harvesting sources (e.g., solar, vibration and heat) make them unreliable.

Wireless Communication
Microchip's configurable MiWi and MiWi P2P stacks enable essential wireless communication features. In addition to these proprietary Microchip protocols, the kit's included MRF24J40 IEEE 802.15.4 transceiver also supports Microchip's ZigBee stacks.

In addition to solving these three major challenges, the Lifetime Power kit also provides modular development with Microchip's included XLP 16-bit Development Board.

Price: US$1250

Availability: Now