Bluetooth^® Low Energy tag

By combining AKM's energy harvesting IC with small solar cells, Bluetooth^® Low Energy tags can be made lighter and smaller. For this reason, it can be attached on the employee ID neck strap without any discomfort to the employee.

For employee ID, it can be attached not only on the neck strap but also near the reel. In addition, since energy can be stably collected even in low-light environments such as logistics warehouses, periodic battery replacement is not required even after attaching to a large number of pallets in the warehouse.

Since small PV cells have low power output current, the collected energy must not be self-consumed by the power supply circuit, so it is essential to configure the circuit with an IC that utilizes a low current. AKM's Energy Harvesting IC can detect the voltage-rise of a storage device by using ultra-low-consumption comparators with an operating current of 26nA. When the IC detects that the voltage has risen to the threshold, it starts supplying power to the MCU and the radio IC and makes a radio transmission.

When connecting a power generation device that does not require boosting, such as a solar cell with a large cell count, which is 6, the voltage of capacitors and rechargeable batteries can be monitored as a low-power-consumption comparator with an operating current of 26nA without using a booster circuit. Reduction of the number of components is also possible because an inductor for boosting voltage is no longer required.