New evaluation kit enables simplified design leveraging solar power to drive a wide range of IoT devices

Cypress Semiconductor has introduced a new kit to evaluate its energy harvesting PMIC family. The CYALKIT-E04 Evaluation Kit provides developers with an easy-to-use platform to create battery-free systems using a solar-powered module or to support battery-life extension, and can be used for evaluation of diverse power management functions used for wireless sensor nodes. The kit can be used with BLE wireless connectivity solutions from the company for IoT applications. The kit includes two independent boards to evaluate the ultra-low-power S6AE102A and S6AE103A PMICs that can use solar energy to charge a super capacitor, along with a sensor board to analyze magnetic door sensor or ambient light sensor operation. This kit includes a solar module, a coin battery, reference schematics, a BOM list and layout to streamline designs. “The evaluation kit presents developers with a great option to evaluate making their systems battery-free with our energy harvesting PMIC family,” said Kiyoe Nagaya, vice president of marketing for Analog products at Cypress. “Energy harvesting allows for usage models where multiple devices can be placed and left to operate without maintenance for battery changes. This opens up a wide range of applications to join the Internet of Things and add intelligence with BLE wireless connectivity by operating on the power of the sun or other forms of light.”