Littleton, Colorado
Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (IPS), a U.S. clean technology
company and leader in manufacturing low cost solid-state,
rechargeable thin-film batteries, today announced that their
award-winning THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell (MEC) products are the
ideal energy storage solution for many Bluetooth® Smart (also known
as Bluetooth Low Energy) devices. The company says its powerful and
eco-friendly MECs are particularly well suited to power these
emerging devices, thanks to the low power wireless radio protocol.
Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices are enjoying rapid industry
adoption as evidenced by the excitement and bustle of activity at
the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
THINERGY MECs are poised to be the battery of choice to power many
Smart devices because they enable smaller, thinner form factors,
and provide high power, unrivalled cycle life, and longer service
life than conventional batteries. As a result, THINERGY MECs enable
a low cost, hassle-free, permanent power solution for a variety of
consumer oriented wireless sensors.
Devices using Bluetooth Low Energy technology, a key part of the
new Bluetooth 4.0 Specification, consume only a portion of the
power required by traditional Bluetooth wireless communication
devices. Bluetooth Smart devices will communicate up to 50 meters
with Bluetooth Smart Ready devices such as phones, tablets and PCs,
which form the epicenter of the consumers' connected world. Raghu
Das, CEO at IDTechEx commented that, "Bluetooth Low Energy was
developed to allow wireless sensors to operate for up to one year
using standard coin-cell batteries. However, these coin-cells still
wear out and eventually need to be replaced, burdening the end-user
with the inconvenience of battery replacement and loss of service.
For longer life, especially in high duty-cycle applications,
Bluetooth Smart devices can be powered indefinitely with THINERGY
MECs thanks to their unprecedented recharge capability, offering
exciting new possibilities for consumer devices." MECs can be
autonomously recharged using ambient energy harvesting, such as a
small, inexpensive solar cell or other harvesting device. Designers
can implement a 4V THINERGY MEC with an energy harvester to provide
permanent, maintenance-free power for the life of the device.
Therefore, a MEC-based solution eliminates the aggravation of
frequent disposal and recycling of conventional batteries, as well
as the logistics and labor costs associated with battery
replacement, allowing for the lowest total cost of ownership for a
Bluetooth Smart device.
The Bluetooth ecosystem is growing exponentially, creating
enormous opportunities for innovation of devices and applications
using Bluetooth Low Energy wireless technology. Chris Allen, CEO
ofiDevices stated, "This gives iDevices Consulting the chance to
differentiate ourselves from our competitors by developing
ultra-low power consuming Bluetooth Smart devices, and powering
them with a thin, eco-friendly, and permanently installed THINERGY
MEC." Bluetooth Low Energy will create a revolution in micro-power
wireless sensor networks since it enables small wireless sensors,
such as those found in Body Area Networks (BAN), to communicate
directly with Smart Ready devices without the need for external
network bridging devices like USB sticks or wireless routers.
Markets for these new Bluetooth Smart devices include health
care, sports and fitness, automotive, security, and home
entertainment. Example devices include heart-rate monitors, glucose
meters, health thermometers, key fobs, remote controls, smart
watches, wireless keyboards, body sensors and a wide variety of
other health and fitness wireless sensors. According to IMS
Research, over 60 million Bluetooth enabled sports, fitness and
health and monitoring devices will be shipped between 2010 and
2015. Semiconductor companies who offer Bluetooth Low Energy
technology integrated circuits include Broadcom, Cambridge Silicon
Radio, EM Microelectronic, Nordic Semiconductor, and Texas
Instruments. Texas Instruments is also a strategic investor in
IPS.
IPS has a Standard
Product Selection Guide that summarizes some of the key
specifications and performance metrics surrounding its THINERGY
MEC200 product family. This matrix illustrates that THINERGY MECs
truly outperform coin cells and other rechargeable micro-batteries
across key specifications, including operating temperature range,
internal resistance, discharge current, cycle life, fast recharge
time, self-discharge current and service life. THINERGY MEC
products are readily available and can be ordered directly from the
factory or from a variety of franchised distributors
including Alpha Micro Components.
