Sigfox, HT Micron, Nowi Partner for Energy-Harvesting "0G" Internet of Things Development Kit
New development kit, combining Sigfox comms, a HT Micron SIP, and a Nowi PMIC, unveiled at CES 2022.
Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity specialist Sigfox has announced a partnership with HT Micron and Nowi on its first energy-harvesting device — as part of an investigation into its suitability for use in the field.
"This collaboration with Nowi and HT Micron 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," claims Sigfox's Benjamin Jooris of the companies' partnership. "We are looking forward to the development of this new kind of devices and to the positive impact they will generate."
The first fruit of the team-up: A development kit, which includes energy-harvesting power management integrated circuitry built by Nowi with a Sigfox system-in-package made by HT Micron. The result, Sigfox claims, is able to efficiently harvest energy from ambient sources including like light and vibration, and is ideally suited for distributed IoT sensor applications.
"The low power consumption of Sigfox solutions is particularly well suited to being powered by ambient energy harvesting," says Nowi's Chris Juliano. "As many Sigfox-based applications require intermittent communication intervals, this allows for trickle charging a storage element with energy harvesting in between transmissions."
The development kit was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES in Las Vegas this week, though is described as being for "testing purpose by R&D [Research and Development] and product development teams" only; a mass-production module variant of the same technology will follow, the companies have pledged, suitable for use "by any type of device maker."
Sigfox has announced that customers can "register to receive the development kit," but at the time of writing no registration was available on the company's website.
