Nexperia Unveils Advanced PMIC to Boost Energy Harvesting and Cut BOM Costs

The new energy harvesting devices eliminate the need for an external inductor, significantly reducing circuit board space and bill-of-materials cost.

Nexperia is broadening its energy harvesting portfolio by introducing the NEH71x0 power management IC (PMIC) family. This advanced line of PMICs offers a combination of high performance, cost efficiency, and versatility, setting a new benchmark for sustainable design in low-power applications. Unlike competing products, the NEH71x0 series eliminates the need for an external inductor, significantly reducing circuit board space and bill-of-materials (BOM) costs. These devices are housed in a compact 4 mm x 4 mm QFN28 package and are ideal for applications such as remote controls, key fobs, smart tags, asset trackers, occupancy sensors, environmental monitors, wearables, keyboards, tire pressure monitors, and numerous Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The NEH71x0 PMICs provide a comprehensive power management solution for energy harvesting, enabling engineers to extend battery life, recharge batteries or supercapacitors, and even eliminate the need for batteries in certain designs thanks to their cold start functionality. The NEH71x0 (NEH7100BU, NEH7110BU) supports multiple ambient power sources, including light, kinetic/piezoelectric, or temperature gradients, with an input power range of 15μW to 100mW. These high-performance ICs achieve energy conversion efficiencies of up to 95% and incorporate an on-chip maximum power point tracking (MPPT) adaptive algorithm that optimizes energy harvesting every 0.5 seconds, ensuring exceptional responsiveness to changing environmental conditions.

The NEH71x0 series integrates a robust set of power management features to safeguard batteries and storage elements, including over-voltage protection, low-voltage detection, and over-current protection. Additional components like a low dropout (LDO) regulator and USB charging further simplify the design process and reduce BOM costs. For enhanced functionality, the NEH7110BU variant includes I2C programmability and measurement capabilities, offering engineers greater flexibility and control in their designs.

Complementing the NEH2000, Nexperia’s inaugural energy harvesting PMIC—a compact and low-BOM converter—the NEH71x0 series introduces more advanced energy harvesting capabilities and power management features. This addition marks a significant step forward in Nexperia’s roadmap of innovative, inductor-less energy harvesting solutions.