08-11-2012, 02:18 PM
Driving innovation in energy efficiency and low power
Driving innovation in energy.pdf (Size: 470.22 KB / Downloads: 31)
Introduction
Technology innovation is pervasive and constant.
It has revolutionized the world, through the
era of personal computers, the explosion of
the Internet, and today’s mobility and
connectivity in our homes, cars and literally
everywhere. Vanishing are the days when access
to a wall outlet is the only way to charge a device.
Consumers demand the latest and greatest in
mobility and functionality. We expect devices
to run the most complex functions using the
least amount of battery (or energy) possible.
Innovations in energy efficiency and low
power are enabling these demands today
and are critical to sustain future advancements
in emerging applications in areas
like cloud computing, healthcare, security,
transportation and more.
Current and future
directions
A combination of energy harvesting devices, more efficient power conversion and devices that consume less
energy will help meet the innovation challenges described above for emerging applications such as wireless
sensing, cloud computing and transportation.
Energy harvesting uses the available energy around us, including light, motion, vibration, radio frequency and
even body heat to power sensor systems. A number of offerings available today are converting low-level ambient
light into power for a variety of applications, such as light-powered wireless sensor networks that eliminate
costly battery replacement. In the near future, energy harvesting solutions may also enable wireless patient
monitoring by converting energy from body heat. Other applications, such as structural monitoring of bridges,
can be enabled by the combination of harvesting energy from vibrations and very low power wireless sensors.
Beyond the mobility of devices, the growing role of cloud computing for all global transactions is driving a
needed focus on energy efficiency and low power. If the Cloud represented a nation or country in and of itself,
as seen in Figure 2, in 2007 it would have ranked number five in total energy consumption3. If we continue
business as usual, the Cloud is projected to move up in energy consumption rank within the next decade.
How it works
There are many ways to measure energy efficiency: power in versus power out, calculating the energy
necessary to quickly move one bit of information from one place to another, or determining the energy to
convert analog signals to digital information. TI engineers and designers continually evaluate product
performance versus energy consumed to optimize product efficiency.
Energy conversion is an important component of any solution. The ability to provide efficient energy
conversion solutions at various power levels is key. For example, converting energy from micro-power
sources requires nana-powered solutions so the harvested energy is not totally consumed by the conversion.
In other cases, efficient energy solutions are needed across a broad load range for applications that only
need full power during short periods of operation and can go from light load to full load in a short amount of
time. Lastly, many systems derive their electrical energy from high voltage sources like the AC line, so the
energy conversion needs to be able operate from high voltage while maintaining high efficiency.