The Energy Harvesting (EH) Zone at Techno Frontier was busy with announcements again this year. In addition to numerous university research projects, Murata, Komatsu, and Altima demonstrated three distinct commercial approaches to this emerging market opportunity. Murata Manufacturing demonstrated its progress in developing all the components needed to implement complete EH-based wireless sensor systems, the KELK subsidiary of Komatsu demonstrated the latest developments in its thermoelectric generation modules while the distributor Altima presented products from six companies that enable the development of complete EH wireless sensor systems.
Murata’s ambitious plans start with the development of four different EH sources based on magnetostrictive, photovoltaic, thermoelectric and piezoelectric technologies. In addition, the company is developing solid-state Li-ion batteries to store the energy produced. These batteries are expected to initially be rated to store 20µAh with an output voltage of 1.5V.