Limited-release energy harvesting applications design kit announced

AVX Corporation has announced the limited release of its new Energy Harvesting Application Design Kit. The kit features a wide range of low-loss components hand-selected to provide engineers with ideal solutions for energy storage, blocking, IC support, output filtering, and external connections in thermoelectric generators, solar cells, piezoelectric devices, and micro wind turbines, including MLCCs, supercapacitors, Schottky diodes, inductors, and connectors. It also comes with a booklet that provides users with a brief introduction to energy harvesting and additional information about the components it contains. "Energy harvesting is finally becoming a practical solution for providing circuit power," said Eric DeRose, field applications engineer at AVX. "IC and general circuit power needs are trending downwards and reaching levels completely unheard of just a few years ago, the cost of energy harvester sources continues to drop, and the size and efficiency of energy harvesters is dramatically improving, which is allowing engineers to employ smaller, lighter, and more reliable generator sources in their designs."