CYPRESS CYALKIT-E04 S6AE102A, S6AE103A Evaluation Kit (EVK)

CYPRESS CYALKIT-E04 S6AE102A, S6AE103A Evaluation Kit (EVK) Energy Harvesting Power Management

The CYALKIT-E04 S6AE102A and S6AE103A evaluation kit (EVK) from Cypress Semiconductor.

The kit allows engineers to quickly and easily develop battery-free applications with an energy harvesting device using Cypress’ ultra-low-power, energy-harvesting S6AE102A and S6AE103A power management ICs (PMICs).

The Cypress CYALKIT-E04 S6AE102A and S6AE103A EVK, available consists of an S6AE102A board, an S6AE103A board, and a sensor board along with a solar module, wires, and a battery for testing different configurations.

The kit can be used as a standalone device or in conjunction with the CY8CKIT-042-BLE Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Pioneer kit to demonstrate and develop applications that power a Bluetooth low energy device using harvested energy.

The BLE Pioneer Kit supports the Cypress PSoC Creator integrated design environment (IDE), a hardware and software co-design environment powered by a library of pre-verified and pre-characterized PSoC Components.

The S6AE102A and S6AE103A PMICs enable ultra-low power operation with quiescent currents of only 280 nA and startup power of only 1.2 μW. This enables the boards to store slight amounts of power generation from a solar cell under dark environments of approximately 100 lux, and provide power to the systems. This kit is capable of supporting the life extension of a primary battery or becoming a battery-less solution, and can be used for evaluation of diverse power management functions used for wireless sensor networks. Engineers can also connect the sensor board to the S6AE102A and S6AE103A boards to evaluate magnetic door sensor and ambient light sensor operation.

Features:

• Easy of evaluation of the energy Harvesting power Management IC S6AE102A and S6AE103A
• Door and Light Sensor
• Connect and Power CY8CKIT-042-BLE Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) PIONEER Kit
• Sensor board supports expansion board, magnetic door sensor (reed switch) & ambient light sensor.
• Arduino pin header-compatible, efficient power delivery operation.
• LEDs for status.
• Charging the surplus solar energy to a 0.33F super capacitor.
• 2Vto 5.5V input voltage, 1.2uW start-up power, 1.1V to 5.2V output voltage. 
• Makes it easy to evaluate ultra-low-power, energy harvesting S6AE102Aand S6AE103A PMICs.
• Reset button for S6AE102A/S6AE103A .
• Test pin header for ground.
• Provides an easy to use platform to develop battery free applications with energy harvesting device.
• Down to 280nA quiescent current, power-gating switch, store energy in up to two external capacitors.

Functions the Sensor Board supports:

• Expansion board for sensor/battery input.
• Magnetic door sensor.
• Ambient light sensor.

Functions the S6AE102A/S6AE103A Boards support:

• Input channel
  • Two inputs for series solar cell and primary battery (option)
• Input voltage range
  • 2.0 – 5.5 V
• Input over voltage protection
  • 5.4 V
• Startup power
  • 1.2 μW
• Output channel
  • Up to two outputs for different system loads
• Output voltage range
  • 1.1- 5.2 V

• Quiescent current
  • Down to 280 nA
• Power gating switch
  • Up to two output power control circuits that controls power provided to the system load
• Multiplexer
  • Switch two inputs from series solar cell and primary battery
• Storage control
  • Store energy in up to two external capacitors
• Peripherals
  • Low-power (400 nA) LDO
  • Low-power (30 nA) CRtimer (S6AE103A only)
  • Low-power (20 nA) Comparator (S6AE103A only)

Basics of Operation:

                                                                                                                                                       Typical architecture for energy-harvesting embedded devices that are built around the S6AE101A/2A/3A PMICs.

As soon as enough light falls on a solar cell to provide current to the device, the S6AE101xA PMIC activates and delivers energy to the system. If the system is not active, or additional energy is available at the input, the device stores the energy in a capacitor for later use.

An internally switched power block can deliver the energy from a battery or solar cell to capacitors or an adjustable output voltage LDO.

                                                                                                       The power block inside the S6AE102A/S6AE103A device controls the state of the connections in the power inputs and outputs. Image from Cypress datasheet.

                                                                                                                                                                     Block diagram of the S6AE102A/S6AE103A PMIC from Cypress Semiconductor Datasheet.

To learn more about these devices, AAC purchased the CYALKIT-E04, which contains evaluation boards for the S6AE102A/S6AE103A.

Testing the Kits:

To learn more about the devices, I connected the S6AE103A to the solar cell provided in the kit and recorded the potential difference at test points VStore1 and VStore 2 with the Tektronix MDO3104 oscilloscope and TPP1000 probes.

For this example, SW12 was in the off position (turning off the charging indicator LED) and SW11 was in the on position (charging the onboard 0.33 F supercapacitor). Primary illumination was provided by an LED desk lamp located 30 cm above the solar cell. Secondary illumination came from a computer monitor (facing away from the solar cell) and an incandescent room light (over 2 m away).

This image shows the charging cycle time before (left eight divisions) and after (right two divisions) the LED desk lamp was turned on. As the lamp’s knob was turned to full brightness, the charge period further decreased (shown in images below). This indicates that the lamp, even at its lowest setting, was the primary source of energy.

I used a 200 s/div time-scale setting to show a large portion of the supercapacitor charge cycle. The Tektronix MDO3104 is capable of 1000 s/div; that would have illustrated much more of the charge cycle, but it would take 2 hours and 45 minutes to fill the oscilloscope screen. Even at 200 s/div you need to wait a long time; it took 33 minutes to record what is shown below.

Channel 1 (yellow) shows the voltage at the VStore1 test point, and Channel 2 (blue) shows the voltage at the VStore2 test point (i.e., the supercapacitor voltage).

Shown above is a 33-minute recording of the supercapacitor charging indoors at night via a desk lamp (Channel 2, blue). See below for better representations of the voltage at the VStore1 test point.

The Charging Circuit:

Energy from the solar cell is initially transferred to the capacitor connected to the VStore1 pin. When an upper voltage threshold is detected, energy is transferred from the small capacitor connected to the VStore1 pin to the supercapacitor connected to the VStore2 pin.

As the VStore1 capacitor voltage decreases due to charging of the VStore2 capacitor, it will eventually reach a lower threshold voltage and cease charging the supercapacitor until the upper threshold is reached again.

The voltage across the VStore1 capacitor (yellow) cycles between upper and lower voltages. At the upper voltage threshold, charging of the VStore2 supercapacitor begins. At the lower voltage threshold, charging of the VStore2 supercapacitor ceases.

Summary:

The Cypress S6AE10xA power management ICs help you to design sensors and other low-power embedded devices that can be powered from ambient light. This could be an effective and fairly simple way to ensure that your device can operate longer than current battery technology allows.

Specifications:

• Brand: CYPRESS
• Model: CYALKIT-E04
• Silicon Manufacturer: Cypress
• Kit Application Type: Power Management
• Silicon Core Number: S6AE102A, S6AE103A
• Application Sub Type: Energy Harvesting

Datasheet:

CYALKIT-E04

Kit Contents:

• S6AE102A board, which uses the following Infineon device:
  • Solar-optimized energy harvesting power management IC S6AE102A
• S6AE103A board, which uses the following Infineon device:
  • Solar-optimized energy harvesting power management IC S6AE103A
• Sensor board (magnetic door sensor, light sensor)
• Series solar module (Panasonic AM-1801)
• Coin battery (CR2032)
• Two jumper wires
• 10-Ω  resistor
• Quick start guide