Sigfox is an IoT (Internet of Things) communication service and 0G network provider, and HT Micron an expert in advanced semiconductor solutions. Nowi specializes in the development of energy harvesting power management technology.
The collaboration marks the first step for Sigfox towards a commercial development of energy harvesting modules to equip IoT devices and contribute to a more sustainable IoT. Key use cases are applications in Smart metering, industrial sensors, asset tracking and air quality monitoring.
During the research phase, HT Micron has created a semiconductor solution that can be integrated with Nowi’s Energy Harvesting PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit) and which has been designed especially for low power IoT devices. Equipped on Sigfox devices and powered by the 0G technology, this solution is intended to reduce battery consumption and offer longer autonomy while reducing the total cost of ownership.
Nowi PMIC is designed to efficiently extract power from ambient energy sources like light and vibration to charge a variety of energy storage elements such as a rechargeable battery or a capacitor and is suited for low power applications like distributed IoT sensors and TV remote controls for example.
“The low power consumption of Sigfox solutions is particularly well suited to being powered by ambient energy harvesting. As many Sigfox-based applications require intermittent communication intervals, this allows for trickle charging a storage element with energy harvesting in between transmissions,” said Chris Juliano, CCO at Nowi.
Sigfox and HT Micron have been working together for a number of years and HT Micron was identified as a strategic partner for this project due to their expertise in creating modules and they consider energy harvesting essential for IoT mass adoption with sustainability.
“This collaboration is another proof point towards our ambition to create IoT solutions that will help our clients preserve the environment by greatly reducing their energy consumption. We are looking forward to the development of this new kind of devices and to the positive impact they will generate,” explained Benjamin Jooris, Client & Ecosystem Success Director at Sigfox.
A development kit integrating Nowi’s PMIC solution with HT Micron’s Sigfox system-in-package, will be used for testing purposes by R&D and product development teams.
Sigfox, Nowi and HT Micron will then look to create a mass production module that can be used by any type of device maker.
