IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021 - 28

Energy Storage: Miniaturizable, (ideally
Intermittent Execution
Operating Range
secondary) higher power & energy density
with ultra-low leakage, delivering hundreds
of thousands of charge cycles.
Micro-power management: Capable of
~50,000 Cycles
100
150
Time (ms)
FIG 5 Input voltage characteristic of intermittent energy system [10]. (Source:
courtesy of Carnegie Mellon)
https://futurenetworks.ieee.org/roadmap) material referenced
here is the output of the Energy Efficiency Working Group
(EE WG), relating to all things EE in next-generation deployments.
It was co-founded and is co-chaired by Francesco
Carobolante, IoTissimo and Brian Zahnstecher, PowerRox.
Enablement/Design Philosophies
In a future article, we plan to outline more technical detail
regarding 'power IoT' roadmaps and drivers but here are
some high level key considerations/needs:
Energy Harvesting: Better efficiencies at material and
device level in converting real-life low-level, ambient energies
(typically µW range)
Antenna
MiddleWare
200
managing
many types of ambient energies,
particularly at low voltage/power
(<100 mV/10 µW). Digital control to dynamically
configure sensors, MCUs and transceivers
to only activate as needed. [8]
Simulation models: New tools are
needed to assess device and system-level
energy generation/storage and usage based
on ambient energies and IoT device configuration
to predict battery life and optimize
component selection. This should
be coupled with existing tools facilitating
good design practice throughout the development process,
accounting for lifetime degradation based on real life
environments particularly for batteries and PV panels. For
example, from ideal, paper calculations, this can be ~30x
variation in required PV cell area required with all tolerances
considered [9].
Ambient energies: There are often intermittent and sporadic.
V/I characteristics vary enormously and dynamic
impedance matching techniques are needed to convert to
usable levels.
SW design: Making the system " energy-aware " is a significant
enabler for optimal utilization of intermittent energy
sources (Figure 5) [10]. An embedded operating system
Storage
SuperCapacitors
Thin
Film
Batteries
Electro
Magnetic
Photo
Electric
Piezo
Electric
ThermoElectric
Fuel
Cell
Thin Film
Batteries
'Making Magnetics Disappear'
Top Magnetic Core
Copper Conductors
Bottom Magnetic Core
Silicon Substrate
FIG 6 WSN node architecture and embedded power solutions. (Source: Tyndall National Institute)
28 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z September 2021
Harvested Voltage
Power On
Computing
Power Failure
Power On
Computing
Power Failure
Power On
Computing
Power Failure
RF/Communications
µ-Control Electronics
Sensor Interface
Energy Management
Energy Management
Energy Generation
Sensors
Power
Management
https://futurenetworks.ieee.org/roadmap
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021
