Nexperia Enhances Energy Harvesting Portfolio by Innovating PMIC to Reduce BOM Costs

Nexperia is expanding its energy harvesting portfolio with the new NEH71x0 Power management IC (PMIC) family. The newly released advanced PMIC series combines superior performance, cost-effective performance and versatility to set a new standard for sustainable design in low-power applications. Unlike competing products, these new PMics eliminate the need for external inductors, which significantly reduces board space and bill of materials (BOM) costs. The new product comes in a compact 4 mm x 4 mm QFN28 package and is suitable for remote controls, key fob, smart tags, asset trackers, sensors, environmental monitors, wearables, keyboards, tire pressure monitors, and a large number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

These new PMics represent a complete power management solution for energy harvesting, and thanks to their cold start capabilities, engineers are able to extend battery life, charge batteries or supercapacitors, and even eliminate the need for batteries in some designs. By adopting the NEH71x0 (NEH7100BU, NEH7110BU) PMIC, designers can choose from a variety of environmental energy sources such as light, kinetic/piezoelectric or temperature gradients. With input power ranging from 15μW to 100mW, these high-performance energy harvesting ics are capable of energy conversion with up to 95% efficiency. The new PMIC includes an on-chip (integrated on premise) Maximum Power Point tracking (MPPT) adaptive algorithm to optimize the collected energy, which is executed every 0.5 seconds, making the PMIC extremely responsive to changing environmental conditions.

The NEH71x0 family integrates a range of power management functions to protect the battery and storage components, including over voltage protection, low voltage detection and over current protection. The addition of low-voltage differential (LDO) regulators and USB charging in the new product further reduces BOM costs and simplifies the system design process. For even more functionality, the NEH7100BU also integrates I2C programmable capabilities and measurement readings, giving engineers more flexibility and control over their designs.

Simon van der Jagt, Head of Energy Harvesting Products at Nexperia, said: "The NEH71x0 family addresses a key challenge in the energy harvesting industry by providing integrated power management capabilities with this inducterless solution. The new products help customers reduce costs while providing innovative solutions for a wide range of applications. By optimizing battery life and reducing reliance on expensive, polluting battery replacements, the NEH71x0 contributes to a more sustainable electronics future."

The NEH71x0 is Nexperia's first compact, low-BOM converter energy capture power management IC, the NEH2000, and marks the future roadmap for innovative inductorless energy capture products by adding more advanced energy capture capabilities and a new set of power management features.