Practical energy harvesting, thin-film batteries and power management solutions for low-power wireless systems were spotlighted at Darnell’s third annual nanoPower Forum (nPF ’09), May 18-20, 2009, in San Jose, California. All are critical technologies enabling wireless applications such as mesh networks, wireless sensor and control applications, microelectromechanical (MEMs) systems, and so on. The proceedings for the conference are now available in PDF format.

Plenary Session

1.1 – Harvesting Mechanical Energy by Nanogenerators, Zhong Lin Wang, Director, Center for Nanostructure Characterization, Georgia Institute of Technology

1.2 – Nanoelectronics: The European Vision and Strategy, Giovanni Balli, Director, AutoGlobal Business Network

1.3 – Living Life Under 1μW – Extreme Deeply Embedded Computing, Mark Buccini, Director, Worldwide Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments

1.4 – Wireless Body Area Network – Today and Tomorrow’s Potentials, Didier Sagan, Product Line Marketing Manager, Medical Products Group, Zarlink Semiconductor

Session 2: Energy Harvesting

2.1 – Highly Efficient Energy Harvesting for Extremely Low Vibration Environments, Richard Waters, Chief Technology Officer, Lumidyne

2.2 – Thermo Harvesting – More and Enduring Power for Wireless Systems, Fritz Volkert, Chief Executive Officer, Micropelt

2.3 – Efficient Power Generation from a Piezoelectric Vibrational Energy Harvester, Robert Andosca, President and CEO, MicroGen Systems

2.4 – Harvesting RF Energy and Powering a Wireless Sensor Node Using a Supercapacitor, Pierre Mars/Charlie Greene, VP Applications Engineering/Head of Technology Platforms, CAP-XX/Powercast

Session 3: Thin-Film Batteries

3.1 – Ultra-High Energy Density Lithium/Air and Lithium/Water Batteries, Steven Visco, Chief Technical Officer and VP, PolyPlus Battery Company

3.2 – Design, Microfabrication and Characterization of Micro-Scale Thin-Film Batteries, Sami Oukassi, R&D Engineer, CEA Grenoble

3.3 – Pervasive Power: Integrating Energy Storage for Point of Load Delivery, Steve Grady, VP of Marketing, Cymbet

Session 4: Systems and Applications

4.1 – Wireless Power Transfer for Hearing Aids, Implanted Medical Devices and Consumer Electronics, Kevin O'Handley, VP Business Development, Ferro Solutions

4.2 – Practical Energy Harvesting, Jerry Ruddle, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Cerametrics

4.3 – Energy Harvesting for Practical Deployment in Building Energy Management Applications, Mike Hayes, Programme Manager, Wireless Sensors for Building Energy Management, Tyndall National Institute

4.4 – Energy Harvesting Powered Wireless Sensor Node and Asset Tracking Solutions in Random Vibration Environments, Anurag Kasyap, Mechanical Analyst, Alexander Edrington, Product Development Manager, Jim Vogeley, CEO, AdaptivEnergy LLC

Session 5: Power Management

5.1 – Efficient Power Management for Low Power Energy Harvesting, Regan Zane, Associate Professor, University of Colorado

5.2 – Design, Implementation and Applications of Ultra-Low Voltage Boost Converter, Kevin, Parmenter/John Pigott, Applications Engineering Manager/Analog IC Guru and Designer, Freescale Semiconductor

5.3 – The Advantages of Microcontrollers in Low-Power Applications, Keith Curtis, Technical Staff Engineer, Microchip

Session 6: Energy Harvesting and Storage

6.1 – Thin-Film Micro-Energy Cells Combined with Energy Harvesting Complete the Ideal Low-Power Wireless Sensor Node, Joe Keating, Applications Engineering Manager, Infinite Power Solutions

6.2 – Fabrication of Flexible Ultracapacitor/Galvanic Cell Hybrids Using Advanced Nanoparticle Coating Technology, Brent Boerger, Manager and Senior Engineer, Applied Research Associates

6.3 – Little Drops: Can They Make an Ocean?, Murugavel Raju, MCU Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments

Session 7: Advanced Components

7.1 – Energy Harvesting Embedded Systems Using the MSP430 MCU, Adrian Valenzuela, Product Marketing Engineer, Texas Instruments

7.2 – Vibration Energy Harvesters Power Industrial WSNs, Keith Abote, perpetuum

7.3 – Energy Harvesting Electronics for TEG, PV and EM Micro-power Generator, Bob Chao, CEO, Advanced Linear Devices