The runtime of batteries used in wearable devices and IoT devices can be increased using the MAX20361 single- / multi-cell solar harvester which is claimed to be the smallest solar harvesting device in the industry today.

It can be used to balance size of device and battery runtime, by enabling solar charging to provide a supplemental power source. The solar harvester reduces solution size by at least half compared to the closest competitor, says the company. The solar harvester uses boost efficiency that is up to 5% better than that of the closest competitor, claims the company to improve the overall system level efficiency.

It can reduce the number and size of external components and delivers additional harvesting gains via adaptive MPPT and the integrated harvesting gauge as a real-time indication of efficiency to optimise performance

The company offers a supplemental power source to continually charge a device’s battery. For example, if it is possible to harvest 30mW of solar power per day on a 300mAh battery system which typically runs for three weeks, the runtime can be extended by over 50%.

Maxim also offers the MAX20361EVKIT# evaluation kit, both the harvester and eval kit are available from the company and authorised distributors.