Applications

Power Backup for Wireless Sensors

Wireless sensors gather information about the physical environment and connect it to systems and networks to provide monitoring, automation and control for many varied applications. The uses of wireless sensor networks are almost unlimited with many industries and applications having specific technology requirements such as reliability, permanence, battery life, range, frequencies, and topologies, network size, sampling rate, data throughput and sensor use. These systems can take the form of security systems, monitoring equipment and machinery in factories, monitoring forces and stresses in a structure (building, bridge, airframe, etc.), liquid and gas flow and pressure in a refinery, monitoring patients and equipment in medical applications, and a host of others.


The Wireless Sensor concept revolves around the sensor node or "mote" which is essentially is a sensor, microcomputer, power source and transceiver which form the input stage of any system. It detects some physical parameter (temperature, pressure, proximity, vibration, sound, electromagnetic, etc.), converts it into quantifiable data and sends the data to a host for processing. The information is then collected by the system along with all the other sensors for a specific control or monitoring task.

The application and placement of some Wireless Sensor systems allow for easy maintenance while other systems require autonomous operation for extended periods of time. Wireless sensors that must operate for very long durations without service must survive on large primary batteries or utilize alternate methods of obtaining the energy necessary for operation. An emerging area of alternate energy sources is Energy Harvesting which employs a method of converting ambient energy into useable energy for the remote wireless sensor. Cymbet EnerChip thin film power devices make excellent sources for motes and sensor nodes that have renewable energy sources or employ energy harvesting for their power. The long cycle life, low self discharge, rechargeability and small form factor make them well suited for these autonomous wireless sensor applications.