Battery Power Online | integrated circuits

Solar Cell Battery Charging: Maximizing Performance and Safety Considerations

Michael Day and Javed Casey, Power Management Group, Texas Instruments

Solar cells are a very popular solution for providing cheap, green energy. They are useful in applications where standard AC line power is not available, or where the power grid is intermittent and unreliable in rural areas such as parts of India and other developing nations. A typical system might be designed to use a solar cell for charging a battery during daylight hours, and then allow the battery to power the end application such as a solar-powered lantern during the night or under cloudy conditions. Read more about Solar Cell Battery Charging: Maximizing Performance and Safety Considerations …

Five Building Blocks of Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Nodes

Niranjan Pathare, Battery Management Solutions Marketing,
Will Cooper, MSP Microcontroller Product Marketing
Texas Instruments

Today, autonomous sensors are in use for a variety of applications. Typically found in smart buildings and factories, these sensing applications include humidity, temperature, and chemical gas monitoring. They are often placed in remote locations where line power is unavailable, so rely heavily on battery power to function. In order to provide dependable operation, batteries have to be changed often, adding to the total cost of ownership. Ownership cost includes expensive labor needed to change the batteries during routine maintenance. Read more about Five Building Blocks of Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Nodes …