AVX Corporation, a leading manufacturer and supplier of passive components and interconnect solutions, announces the limited release of its new Energy Harvesting Application Design Kit. The kit features a wide range of low-loss components hand-selected to provide engineers with ideal solutions for energy storage, blocking, IC support, output filtering, and external connections in thermoelectric generators, solar cells, piezoelectric devices, and micro wind turbines, including MLCCs, supercapacitors, Schottky diodes, inductors, and connectors. It also comes with a booklet that provides users with a brief introduction to energy harvesting and additional information about the components it contains.
“Energy harvesting is finally becoming a practical solution for providing circuit power,” said Eric DeRose, field applications engineer at AVX. “IC and general circuit power needs are trending downwards and reaching levels completely unheard of just a few years ago, the cost of energy harvester sources continues to drop, and the size and efficiency of energy harvesters is dramatically improving, which is allowing engineers to employ smaller, lighter, and more reliable generator sources in their designs.”
Components included in the new Energy Harvesting Application Design Kit include:
- X5R dielectric capacitors, which offer high volumetric efficiency and are well suited for space-constrained decoupling and filtering applications.
- X7R dielectric capacitors, which exhibit non-linear temperature variation of capacitance within ±15% from -55°C to +125°C.
- SCC Series supercapacitors, which offer excellent pulse power handling characteristics resulting from a combination of very high capacitance and very low ESR and can be used by themselves or in conjunction with primary or secondary batteries to achieve extended backup time, longer battery life, and instantaneous power pulses as needed.
- SD Series Schottky rectifier diodes, which feature leadless chip packaging technology that eliminates lead frame wire bonds for greater top-bottom symmetry with fewer mounting problems and improved heat transfer and current handling capabilities.
- LMXN Series (Style B) power inductors, which feature robust, non-shielded ferrite cores.
- 9286 Series wire-to-wire connectors, which provide maximum wire retention for 18–24AWG solid and stranded wires via an active stainless steel spring contact that eliminates the need for push-button activation and achieves significant cost savings.
- 9296 Series wire-to-board poke-home connectors, which feature a dual-beam boxed contact system, enable solderless surface-mount attachment to PCBs and provide simple and reliable terminations for 12–28AWG solid and stranded wires.
- 9175/6/7 wire-to-board STRIPT IDC contacts, which provide cost-effective, insulator-less connections for discrete 12–28AWG wires, function just like traditionally insulated connectors, and are UL-certified.
AVX’s new, limited-release Energy Harvesting Application Design Kit (part number: KIT-ENERGY HARVEST) is now available and ready to ship. For design suggestions, part recommendations, or other assistance, please contact your local AVX sales representative, visit www.avx.com, email inquiry@avx.com, call 864-967-2150, or write to One AVX Boulevard, Fountain Inn, S.C. 29644.
