"Power Saving IC" How A Failed IoT Project Led to An Extremely Low-Power Chip

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The Norwegian developer Nanopower is bringing its extremely frugal component Npzero into series production. At Embedded World, the company revealed how battery frustration led to its foundation and why an even smaller version for wearables will soon follow.

The idea for the energy-saving chip arose from its own failure. Originally, the team around CTO and co-founder William Xavier wanted to build sensor modules for the logistics industry. The prototypes worked excellently and measured temperature, humidity and vibration. However, one crucial detail prevented market success. The module simply consumed too much power. Out of this frustration, the company decided to get to the root of the problem and design its own chip to drastically extend battery life. Today, with the Npzero, Nanopower is positioning itself as a solution provider for precisely this pain point.

The module acts as a companion for the main processor in a networked device. During operation, the Npzero completely switches off the actual microcontroller and takes over the regular monitoring of the sensors itself. "We are not a low-power MCU. We are not a PMIC. We are a PSIC," says Anthony Carter, VP Sales at Nanopower, describing the approach in an interview with ELEKTRONIKPRAXIS. PSIC stands for Power Saving IC.

From Microamperes to Nanoamperes

While a conventional microcontroller typically draws around 125 microamperes from the battery in standby mode, the Npzero operates in the nanoampere range. The declared target for the operating current is just 90 nanoamperes. This drastic reduction has a direct impact on the service life of the energy storage system. In one customer project, which is powered by a commercially available button cell, the runtime was massively extended. "We actually have a customer who has shown that the battery life has increased from two to six years," explains Carter.

The design of this so-called sub-threshold chip is being developed in Porto, Portugal, in close cooperation with the local university. Production using the 120-nanometer process is carried out by the contract manufacturer UMC in Taiwan. The production of such frugal circuits poses physical challenges, particularly with regard to the consistent yield on the wafers. The company has now overcome these hurdles and started series production.

Outlook: Even Smaller for Smart Rings

Parallel to the start of production of the current housing design, Nanopower is already working on the next stage of miniaturization. For applications where space is extremely limited, such as fitness rings or data glasses, the company is announcing a CSP version. This component measures just two millimetres (0.08 inches) and is therefore half the size of the current version. The battery often dictates the size of the end device. If the chip reduces power consumption, developers can install smaller batteries and thus design significantly more compact products.

To make it easier for hardware developers to get started, Nanopower is introducing new evaluation hardware in addition to software tools. A new board the size of a postage stamp, known internally as the C series or simply Stamp, enables engineers to quickly insert the Npzero into existing circuits or remove it again. This makes it easy to measure a direct before-and-after comparison of power consumption. The company's focus is on fast and smooth integration into customers' projects: "We really want our development engineers to be successful, and fast, and for them to realize the most effective design possible," emphasizes the head of sales. (mc)

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