Silicon Labs' most energy-efficient Wireless
SoC to date with energy harvesting-ready capabilities
AUSTIN,
Texas, April 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon
Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in secure, intelligent wireless
technology for a more connected world, today announced their new
xG22E family of Wireless SoCs, Silicon Labs' first-ever family
designed to operate within the ultra-low power envelope required
for battery-free, energy harvesting applications. The new
family consists of the BG22E, MG22E, and FG22E. As Silicon Labs'
most energy-efficient SoCs to date, all three SoCs will enable IoT
device makers to build high-performance, Bluetooth Low
Energy (LE), 802.15.4-based, or Sub-Ghz wireless
devices for battery-optimized and
battery-free devices that can harvest energy from
external sources in their environments like indoor or outdoor
ambient light, ambient radio waves, and kinetic motion.
To help device manufacturers build a complete energy harvesting
solution, Silicon Labs is also announcing their partnership with
e-peas, a provider of industry-leading Power Managed Integrated
Circuits (PMICs) designed for energy harvesting. Through this
partnership, Silicon Labs and e-peas co-developed two energy
harvesting shields for Silicon Labs' new, energy-optimized xG22E
Explorer Kit. To better develop within the tight constraints that
energy harvesting requires, the new xG22E Explorer Kit allows
developers to customize the peripherals and debugging options that
best match their application and get highly accurate measurements
to better build their applications and devices with the energy
harvesting shields. The energy harvesting shields are each tuned
and optimized for different energy sources and energy storage
technologies. They are custom-fit to slot onto the Explorer Kit.
Notably, one of the shields uses e-peas' latest AEM13920
dual-harvester, which allows it to pull energy simultaneously from
two distinct energy sources, like indoor or outdoor
light, thermal gradients, and electromagnetic waves without
sacrificing on energy conversion efficiency. The second
co-developed shield is based on e-peas' AEM00300 shield, and
is dedicated to harvesting power from random pulsed energy
sources.
"As the market for energy harvesting and low-power solutions
grows, Silicon Labs remains dedicated to enhancing our wireless MCU
and radio stack capabilities to advance the development of
battery-free IoT solutions," said Ross
Sabolcik, Senior Vice President for the Industrial and
Commercial Business Unit at Silicon Labs. "Our efforts to
prioritize energy efficiency and increase device longevity
underscore our commitment to fostering a more sustainable IoT
ecosystem."
xG22E Designed to Address Energy Efficiency Challenges for
the IoT
The evolution and widespread deployment of the
Internet of Things (IoT) faces a significant challenge related to
powering low-complexity, small-form-factor devices. Traditional
sources like mains power or batteries pose scalability and
maintenance issues. The emergence of the Ambient IoT addresses this
challenge by introducing a class of connected devices primarily
powered through energy harvesting from ambient sources like radio
waves, light, motion, and heat.
Silicon Labs aims to build a device that can address one of the
significant challenges in Ambient IoT: creating a platform that can
optimize its energy consumption and prolong its lifespan. The
xG22E family comes equipped with several features designed to
minimize energy use and make it the platform of choice for energy
harvesting, including:
- Ultra-fast, low-energy cold start for applications
starting from a zero-energy state to transmit packets and then
rapidly return to sleep. An xG22E device wakes up in only eight
milliseconds and uses only 150 micro-Joules, or roughly 0.003% of
the energy needed to power a 60-watt equivalent LED
lightbulb for one second.
- Energy conserving deep sleep swift
wake-up reduces wake-up energy by 78% compared to other
Silicon Labs devices.
- Power-efficient energy mode transition to smoothly
transition in and out of energy modes by mitigating current spikes
or inrush, which can harm energy storage capacity.
- Multiple deep sleep wake-up options, such as RFSense,
GPIO, and RTC wake-up sources from the deepest EM4 sleep mode, are
ideal for extended storage.
Energy Harvesting Applications Enable a More Sustainable
IoT
Energy harvesting and conservation technologies offer
significant benefits across industries, including reduced energy
costs, elimination of battery dependence, and reduced operational
carbon footprint by changing energy consumption sources and
minimizing battery waste. It also complements many existing IoT
applications. For example, electronic shelf labels are being
rapidly adopted by retailers across the globe to allow for more
accurate pricing, inventory management, and even loss prevention.
However, with a single location having as many as thousands of
labels, they require a lot of batteries. Fortunately, electronic
shelf labels do not need a lot of power, nor do they require
always-on connectivity, making them an excellent fit for energy
harvesting. By using Ambient IoT energy sources, retailers can
reduce or eliminate their need for batteries for shelf labels.
Other examples in the consumer space include television remote
controls that use solar energy and movable, wireless light or
appliance switches.
Silicon Labs actively supports companies developing successful
low-power devices and pursuing battery-free designs, fostering an
environmentally sustainable leadership within their respective
fields.
To learn more about how to begin developing battery-free IoT
devices using Silicon Labs, be sure to visit:
- The registration page for the May
9th Tech Talk unboxing of the xG22E
- The new Silicon Labs Energy Harvesting page
- The Silicon Labs blog to learn more about energy
harvesting
About Silicon Labs
Silicon Labs is a trailblazer in
wireless connectivity for the Internet of Things. The corporate
values and vision to be a sustainable leader in the semiconductor
Industry are the foundation of Silicon Labs' sustainability
strategy. Its integrated hardware and software platform, intuitive
development tools, and unmatched ecosystem support make Silicon
Labs the ideal long-term partner in building advanced industrial,
commercial, and home and life applications. Silicon Labs leads the
industry in high performance, low power, and security, supporting
the broadest set of multi-protocol solutions.
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SOURCE Silicon Labs
