TI ultra-low power converter to accelerate energy harvesting designs in consumer electronics, smart home

DALLAS, Jan. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Answering the question, "How low can you go with power?" Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today introduced the industry's lowest power DC/DC step-down converter, which increases the amount of harvested energy an end application can use as much as 70 percent over alternative devices. The ultra-low power circuit enables battery-free power to applications, such as wireless sensor networks, monitoring systems, smoke detectors, wearable medical devices and mobile accessories.

"Imagine not having to change the battery in your smoke detector – ever," said Sami Kiriaki, senior vice president of TI's Power Management. "TI continues to develop circuits with very low operating current and high power efficiency that can manage microwatts to milliwatts and extract ambient energy. This new power circuit gives designers capabilities not possible with traditional battery-powered systems."

Lowest power DC/DC converter
TI's TPS62736 DC/DC converter delivers high power conversion efficiency from 10 uA to 50 mA output currents, and consumes only 350 nA of active current and 20 nA during standby. The converter achieves greater than 90-percent efficiency across output currents higher than 15 uA. The TPS62736 regulator steps down the voltage from a power source, such as a thin-film or regular battery or a super capacitor and features a programmable output voltage.

Enabling energy harvesting design
Innovative power management, sensors and microcontrollers from TI are taking low-power design to the next level by optimizing extracted energy from ambient sources using the highest possible efficiency and lowest power consumption. In 2011, TI introduced its bq25504 boost charger circuit with a low quiescent current of 330nA, to allow start-up from single-cell solar cells under low light or thermoelectric generators with low temperature differences.   

TI also recently announced sampling of its MSP430FR59xx microcontrollers based on its "Wolverine" technology platform. These new FRAM-based microcontrollers can operate as low as 360 nA in real-time clock mode or less than 100 uA/MHz in active power consumption, and feature fast wakeup time of 6.5 us and high-precision peripherals. The MSP430FR59xx enable developers to add flexibility, performance and battery life to a variety of applications, including wireless sensing, energy harvesting, smart grid, building automation and security.

Availability and pricing
The TPS62736 is currently sampling through TI. It comes in a 3.5-mm by 3.5-mm QFN package and is priced at US$2.00 in 1,000-unit quantities. Volume production is expected later in the first quarter. Evaluation modules are available to select customers.

Find out more about TI's power portfolio by visiting the below links:

• Check out TI's battery management and low-power DC/DC converters at: www.ti.com/power-pr.
• Ask questions, solve problems in the Power Forum in the TI E2E™ Community: www.ti.com/powerforum-pr.
• Download TI's Power Management Guide: www.ti.com/powerguide-pr.
• Stay connected with TI at next week's CES 2013 in Las Vegas:
  • TI's CES activities
  • TI on Twitter
  • TI on Facebook
  • TI on Google +

About Innovation at TI
For more than 80 years, TI has been at the forefront of technical innovation, enabling customers to differentiate products with higher integration, faster speeds and lower power. Today, we are engineering the future with advances in energy harvesting, power management, cloud computing, safety and security, health technology, and more. Learn more about how TI's Analog and Embedded Processing products are improving how we live, work and play, today and well into the future, at www.ti.com/innovation.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 90,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun. Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities. This is just the beginning of our story. Learn more at www.ti.com.

Trademarks
TI E2E is trademark of Texas Instruments. All registered trademarks and other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated