A battery-free future for IoT devices
IoT devices are increasingly deployed to monitor and track data. Yet their reliance on batteries poses significant challenges, including high maintenance costs, poor user experience owing to frequent replacements and environmental concerns from battery production and disposal. The main goal of the EU-funded EPEAS project was to solve the battery problem in IoT devices by enabling them to power themselves using energy from their environment. IoT devices are built around four key components: a sensor to gather data, a microcontroller to process it, communication to send it to the cloud and power management. “At e-peas(opens in new window), we already provide power management circuits that, when paired with tiny energy harvesters, can supply energy efficiently. By combining this technology with a low-power microcontroller and an image sensor, we can create energy-autonomous devices, eliminating the need for battery replacements,” notes project coordinator Julien De Vos.
IoT unplugged: technology’s critical building blocks
EPEAS solution combines advanced circuits into an energy-autonomous edge computing platform, featuring a power management IC for harvesting ambient energy(opens in new window), an ultra-low-power microcontroller and a CMOS image sensor. The system intelligently collects, stores and distributes energy from its environment – the power management circuit regulates energy flow while the microcontroller optimises device operations based on the available power. Hardware accelerators, such as automatic sleep mode for the microcontroller unit (MCU) and motion detection for the image sensor, ensure reliable performance even when the available energy is minimum. This enables the device to sense, process and communicate data without relying on replaceable batteries.
All-in-one system setting a new energy efficiency standard
“Our solution stands out because our circuits are designed to work seamlessly together. Therefore, our MCU not only achieves record-low power consumption, holding the highest ULPBench score [standardised benchmark used to measure MCU energy efficiency] for a Cortex-M0 microcontroller, but also communicates directly with our power management IC to monitor the system’s energy status. This allows users to adapt application behaviour based on factors like battery charge level,” explains De Vos. By contrast, competing solutions often rely on separate modules from different suppliers, thereby limiting optimisation. Furthermore, EPEAS’ image sensor boasts the lowest power consumption and features patented on-chip image pre-processing to minimise energy use during data transfer and further enhance overall efficiency.
Scalable technology for varying power and device needs
“Our system is fully scalable and adaptable to devices with different power requirements,” states De Vos. The interface between the power management circuit and the microcontroller allows the system to optimise the power extraction according to the produced amount of energy or integrate additional features. “Our expertise can also be extended to more advanced microcontroller architectures or higher-resolution image sensors. This flexibility ensures that the technology can support everything from simple low-power sensors to more demanding edge devices, including those with vision or artificial intelligence capabilities,” adds De Vos.
Energy-autonomous technology powering diverse applications and markets
EPEAS technology is perfect for industries where battery replacement poses high costs or logistical challenges. It is particularly suited for smart building and retail applications such as electronic shelf labels and occupancy sensors, industrial IoT uses such as predictive maintenance, and environmental monitoring systems. It also fits consumer electronics, wearables and smart city infrastructure. By enabling energy autonomy, it ensures long-term, maintenance-free operation, supporting the growth of a sustainable and scalable IoT. The technology has been showcased at major international trade shows like CES, Embedded World and Electronica, as well as in white papers. Feedback from customers and partners has been used to refine the commercial strategy and prepare for the product launch.
