Ultra-low Power (Microwatt) Energy Harvesting For Wireless Switches And Wireless Sensor Networking - Types, Applications, New Developments, Industry

Additional Information

REASONS FOR DOING THE STUDY

Supplying power to a network of sensor-transmitters has traditionally required expensive wiring installation or routine battery changes. Gathering data from difficult or dangerous-to-reach locations using wired sensors may be impossible and may even compromise the safety of personnel while installing wiring and replacing batteries. A perpetual power source is essential for many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Energy harvesting technologies are on the verge of new breakthroughs with energy storage, and they are being paired with ultra-low power chipsets as well as plug-and-play software.

While still in an early phase, energy harvesting devices, which translate abundant sources of energy such as light, heat and mechanical into electrical energy, are rapidly being integrated with wireless sensor technologies. By 2011, there will be 150M to 200M wireless sensors being used in factory automation, process and environmental control, security, medicine, and condition-based maintenance, as well as in defense applications and intelligence gathering. Such wireless sensor systems will:

require numerous individual devices (known as nodes or motes) to provide comprehensive monitoring capability;
be located in inaccessible places much of the time; and
have to operate with long intervals between scheduled maintenance. Periodic maintenance, such as replacing batteries, would clearly increase operating costs, and could be inconvenient, at best, if it required interruption of a continuous process.

There is clearly a need to develop an energy source that can last years with little or no maintenance.

With all these developments, iRAP felt the need to conduct thorough technology, industry and market analyses of ultra-low power energy harvesting for WSNs.

Contributions of the study

The growing opportunity for developing “zero power” applications stems from exponential trends in three separate technologies. First, each new generation of wireless sensors, or microcontrollers, can accomplish much more for much less power. Second, wireless networking is evolving radios and protocols that carry increasing amounts of information at decreasing power levels. Finally, the ability to capture and utilize minute amounts of power by various means has expanded dramatically. This harvesting ability has now surpassed the falling power demands for many small systems, opening the door to myriad possibilities.

The report targets two types of ultra-low power energy harvesting devices - wireless switches for building automation and wireless sensor networks. It analyzes the worldwide markets for ultra-low power energy harvesting for these devices using several technologies - electromagnetic, vibration to electricity, heat to electricity, solar to electricity and radio frequency to electricity - and covering six applications - wireless sensor networks (WSNs), building automation (wireless, battery-less, low-power switches in big commercial buildings), automotives (tire pressure monitoring systems, or TPMSs), medical uses such as body area networks (BANs); precision agriculture; and consumer electronics and IT peripherals. Information and projections are for the period from 2009 to 2014.

This iRAP report focuses on market data and analysis of the growing market for energy harvesting and next-generation storage solutions, specifically for wireless switches and wireless sensor networking.

The report provides the most thorough and up-to-date assessment that can be found anywhere on the subject. The study also provides extensive quantification of the many important facets of market developments in the emerging markets of ultra-low power energy harvesting for WSNs. This, in turn, contributes to the determination of what kind of strategic response suppliers may adopt in order to compete in this dynamic market.

SCOPE AND FORMAT

The market data contained in this report quantify opportunities for ultra-low power energy harvesting for wireless switches and WSNs. In addition to product types, it also covers the many issues concerning the merits and future prospects of ultra-low power energy harvesting for WSNs, including corporate strategies and the means for providing these highly advanced products and service offerings. It also covers, in detail, the economic and technological issues regarded by many as critical to the industry’s current state of change.

The report provides separate comprehensive analyses for the U.S., Japan, western Europe, China, Korea, and the rest of the world. Annual forecasts are provided for each region for the period 2009 through 2014. Cost analysis of ultra-low power energy harvesting for WSNs is provided. Global patent activity and market competition and dynamics in the new technology are also targeted in the report. The report profiles 30 companies, including many key and niche players worldwide, as technology providers and raw material suppliers to ultra-low power energy harvesting for WSNs product manufacturers.

TO WHOM THE STUDY CATERS

This study would benefit existing original equipment manufacturing (OEM) companies involved in wireless switches and -the WSN business as suppliers or potential suppliers and clients looking for ultra-low power energy harvesting devices as alternate power solutions to the conventional battery in a fit-and-forget environment.

This study provides a technical overview of ultra-low power energy harvesting for wireless switches and WSNs, especially recent technology developments and existing barriers. Therefore, audiences for this study include marketing executives, business unit managers and other decision makers in the market, as well as those in companies peripheral to this business.

Because the report also analyzes the strategies and prospects of leading firms active in this space, it will be of interest to:

firms in the spaces who want to understand the next wave of opportunities and how low power energy harvesting will impact them in the future;

advanced materials, components and sub-contract manufacturing companies who need to analyze the potential for selling their products and services into the low power energy harvesting segment; and

investment bankers, venture capitalists and private equity investors who need a realistic appraisal of the revenue potential and timeframes associated with low power energy harvesting technologies based on nanostructured materials.

REPORT SUMMARY

Recent developments in energy harvesting and autonomous sensing mean that it is now possible to power wireless sensors solely from energy harvested from the environment. Clearly, this is dependent on sufficient environmental energy such as vibration, heat and light being present. It is also possible to transfer energy wirelessly to nodes by means of effects such as electromagnetic induction (as used in wireless switches). Energy harvesting is a developing technology area, and prominent technologies facilitate the generation of electricity from electromagnetic induction, electricity from light (photo-voltaics), vibration (vibration energy harvesting) or thermal gradients (thermo-electrics). The intermittent nature of many environmental energy sources· means that viable devices must harvest energy from their operating environment when possible, and buffer excess energy in some kind of energy storage system such as thin-film batteries or supercapacitors.

The confluence of multiple technologies (low power micro-controllers and radios, sophisticated power management, better batteries, practical energy harvesting, and robust networking protocols) has enabled these wireless sensor network (WSN) projects to work in real-world situations to solve real-world problems.

Energy harvesting techniques can deliver energy densities of 7.5 mW/cm2 from outdoor solar, 100 µW/cm2 from indoor lighting, 100 µW/cm 2 from vibrational energy and 60 µW/cm2 from thermal energy typically found in building environments. A truly autonomous, “deploy and forget,” battery-less system can be achieved by scaling the energy harvesting system to provide all of the system needs.

Energy harvesting is now commercially viable technology. This is because the necessary lower power electronics and more efficient energy gathering and storage methods are now sufficiently affordable, reliable and longer lived for a huge number of applications, especially WSN, to be practicable.

Successfully applied energy harvesting makes very real the prospect of small electronics systems, such as wireless sensors that are self-powered, maintenance-free, and virtually unrestricted in their placement. With careful power management and energy efficient design, developers can now effectively address applications that were totally impractical only a few years ago. This is just the beginning, as reducing power needs and increasing harvesting options perpetually broaden the range of possibilities.

The 2009 market was estimated to be about $79.5 million. In spite of the recession, iRAP estimates that the market will reach $1,254 million in 2014, for an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 73.6%.

Other major findings of this report are:

Electromagnetic energy harvesting kits will have the highest market share. Vibration-to-energy harvesting kits have a much smaller market share. Thermoelectric generators (TEG), photo-voltaic EH, and radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting will have a combined market share of less than 6% in 2009.

Among the five markets, the potential market for energy harvesting based on wireless sensors and switches in buildings alone is in several billion pieces per year with a market share of over 90% in 2009.

Although starting with low numbers in 2009, the markets for energy harvesting (EH) devices and wireless sensors used in multiple applications such as WSNs (industrial machinery, agriculture, structural health monitoring), tire pressure monitoring systems and medical related market such as body area network (BAN) would reach sizable numbers by 2014.

In 2009, the European market share is highest followed by North America, Japan, China, and the rest of the world (ROW).

In 2014, the Europe market share will remain highest, despite a slight share decrease followed by North America. However, China will take over Japan to reach the third place by 2014.