Energy Harvesting

This paper discusses the design and use of a cellular IoT application circuit that is powered from harvested energy. The application combines GNSS-based positioning as well as short range (Bluetooth) and cellular (NB-IoT and LTE-M) communication. The solution developed uses the u-blox SARA-R4 (LTE Cat M1 / NB1) or the u-blox SARA-N2 (LTE Cat NB1) cellular modules, the u-blox NINA-B1 Bluetooth low energy module and applications processor, and the u-blox ZOE-M8 GNSS receiver. In addition there are several sensors for ambient light, UV, motion, temperature, humidity, magnetic detection and air pressure. A video of the vibration harvester example is available on YouTube. While energy harvesting is the focus of this paper, all the techniques described apply just as well to any ultra-low power system operating from a primary battery.