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A Market Overview of the Competitive Environments of Energy Harvesting, Micro Batteries and Power Management ICs With Detailed Company Profiles

Posted on: Monday, 6 October 2008, 09:00 CDT

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c76f9c/energy_harvesting) has announced the addition of the "Energy Harvesting, Micro Batteries and Power Management ICs: Competitive Environment" report to their offering.

This report gives a top-level overview of some of the companies that make energy harvesting devices, micro batteries and power management ICs for low-power sensors and devices. Each of these markets is different, with different characteristics defining them and driving them. The energy harvesting companies are, for the most part, small start-up companies. Many are in Europe, like EnOcean, Ubiwave and Perpetuum. Companies like Powercast and Perpetuum have commercial products, while others are still in the prototype stage. The companies offering piezoceramic materials are more established, with energy harvesting only one of the industries they supply to.

Many of the energy harvesting companies have found it useful to partner with IC companies. IDS Microchip has an near field communications solution they did for Texas Instruments, for example. EnOcean is working with the Fraunhofer Institute. Perpetuum is working with Dust Networks. Many of these companies are members of the ZigBee Alliance, as well. The IEEE 802.15.4 standard (ZigBee) is now expected to co-exist with other standards such as Z-Wave, Insteon, LonTalk and others. As a result, products are becoming "ZigBee-qualified." Still, some companies believe that ZigBee will follow Bluetooth's path in that it will need to find its own "application niche."

What is agreed upon is that wireless technologies are "hot" - customers want them and find wireless cheaper. Customers also want low power and high reliability. Where demand differences come in is with batteries. Some customers want batteries and some do not. In general, the power requirements of batteries need to be minimized, and both established companies and start-ups are trying to meet this need. EaglePicher, Tadiran and Varta, for example, are capitalizing on their existing lithium technologies to offer microbatteries for energy harvesting applications. Front Edge, Oak Ridge Micro-Energy and Solicore are newer companies offering ultra-thin film batteries. Although many energy harvesting solutions (such as microgenerators) are aimed at "getting rid of batteries," they are still likely to be used in many wireless sensor networks.

The most established companies offering wireless sensor network and energy harvesting solutions are the power management IC companies. Texas Instruments, Nordic Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics - these manufacturers and more have a variety of products targeted at ultra-low-power applications. Some, like Advanced Linear Devices, have specific modules for energy harvesting. These products are expected to help drive down costs, since high volumes are necessary to achieve market penetration. Radiocrafts, for instance, is "aiming for high-volume manufacturing." Most companies see commercial adoption of ZigBee products and related energy harvesting solutions in two to three years.

Like most emerging technologies, the energy harvesting landscape has many specialized competitors. The profiles in this report cannot cover them all, but they do provide a representative sample of the more significant products and technologies.

Key Topics Covered: - Energy Harvesting Technology Company Activity - Micro-Battery and Energy Storage Company Activity - Power Management IC Company Activity - List of Tables

Companies Mentioned: - Advanced Cerametrics Inc. - Advanced Linear Devices - Ambient Micro - AMI Semiconductors - AMX? - Analog Devices - ANT - Art of Technology AG - Atmel Corp. - austriamicrosystems - Bee Switching - Cedrat Technologies - CeramTec - CTS Wireless - CurrentRF - EaglePicher - EDO Corp. - EM Microelectronic - Emerson & Cuming - EnOcean - Ferro Solutions - Ferroperm - FlexiPanel - Freescale Semiconductor Inc. - Front Edge Technology - Fuji Ceramics Corp. - IDS Microchip - Infineon Technologies AG - Jennic Ltd. - KCF Technologies - Marlow Industries - Maxim Integrated Products - Melexis Microelectronic Systems - Microchip Technology Inc. - Micropelt GmbH - MicroStrain - Mide Technology Corp. - Morgan Electro Ceramics - Nanoexa - Nanotron - Noliac A/S - Nordic Semiconductor ASA - Oak Ridge Micro-Energy - Oki Semiconductor - Physik Instrumente - Piezo Kinetics - Piezo Systems Inc. - Piezo Technologies - PMG Perpetuum - Powercast - Pulseswitch Systems (a FACE company) - Quallion LLC - Radiocrafts AS - RadioPulse - S3C - Seacor Piezo Ceramics - Semtech Corporation - Sensicast Systems - Sensor Technology Ltd. - Silicon Laboratories Inc. - Smart Material - Solicore, Inc. - STMicroelectronics - Tadiran Batteries - Texas Instruments Inc. - Thermo Life Energy Corp. - TRS Technologies - Ubiwave - Varta Microbattery - xG Technology - Advanced Digital Broadcast - Agere Systems - Air Products and Chemicals Inc. - Alpine - Apple - Applied Digital - Apprion - AT&T- Atlas Copco - Avnet Electronics Marketing - Baytech Venture - BearBox - BioPhan Technologies - Boeing - Bosch Siemens - Broadcom - Caterpillar - Chipcon - Citala - Conexant - CSR - Daimler Chrysler - Decktron - Delphi - DTS GmbH - Duchossois Industries - Dust Networks - Dynastream - Ember Corp. - Emdes - EnergyICT - Epson - European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. - Garmin Ltd. - GE Research - Halliburton - Hatulek - Helicomm - Honeywell - IBM - Intel - International Marketing Inc. - Jaco Electronics - KfW Mittelstandsbank - Lasag - L-Bank - LG Electronics - Line 6 - Little At - MBG - McQuay - Medtronics - MeshNetics - Micro Components - Micro Crystal - Microsoft - Motorola - Murr Elektronik - Nedap - NESA - Nokia - ON Semiconductor - Oscilloquartz - PerkinElmer - Philips Electronics - Pioneer - Pruftechnik - PTC - Reneta - RLW - Sagem - SAM Private Equity - Samson - Samsung - Service Sensus - SHS - Siemens AG - Siemens Technology Accelerator - Siemens Venture Capital - Software Technologies Group - Sokymat Automotive - Sony - Suunto - Swatch Group - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. - Taiyo Yuden - Telindus - Teltronic - Thomson - Toshiba - Trenco - Tritech Technology AB - Uniqa Insurance - Vehicle Enhancement Systems - Wellington Partners - Yamatake - Yorkshire Waterworks

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c76f9c/energy_harvesting

Source: Business Wire

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