At Embedded World, a trade fair held in Germany last week, a prototype of an illuminometer powered by an organic PV (OPV) module replacing the traditional coin battery was on display. It is a result of collaboration between France’s Dracula Technologies, an OPV module manufacturer, and STMicroelectronics, a Swiss-headquartered semiconductor company with production sites in Italy and France.
An illuminometer is an instrument for measuring light intensity and brightness, also known as a lux meter.
The two companies said in a statement that the energy harvesting performance of the OPV module is designed to excel in low-light, sub-500 lux conditions and matches well with a new low-power microcontroller unit, named STM32U0.
The pairing enables battery-free or autonomous sensors and connected devices serving industrial, medical, smart metering and retail markets, as well as consumer health and wellness applications. “Our Layer technology allows customers of both companies to power and operate autonomously a complete device using the latest STM32U0 microcontroller unit,” Jerome Vernet, Dracula Technologies vice president of sales, told pv magazine.
Popular content
Commenting on the collaboration, Thierry Bousquet, marketing manager for the STM32 ultra-low power product line at STMicroelectronics, said in a statement: “One of the STM32U0 demos that garnered a lot of attention is an illuminometer built using Dracula Technologies’ OPV module. It runs on a small photovoltaic panel receiving only 5 lux instead of the traditional coin battery.”
To give an idea of the Dracula Technologies technology, an evaluation board available for purchase has a functional area of 47 mm x 57 mm weighing 1.66 g. At 1,000 lux, the current is 322 mA and the power output is 750 mW at 2.85 V.
Founded in 2011, Dracula has announced factory plans with a capacity to produce up to 150 million cm² of its printed OPV products annually. More recently, it announced a new product that integrates its PV modules with a supercapacitor in a single thin film-based component, designed to store energy for periods without ambient light and replace conventional batteries in connected devices.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
1 comment
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.