Battery-less Remote Sensors with Reversed Peltier Power Source based on Energy Harvesting Principle

Special events (oceanobiologist, seismic activities detection, detection of chemical substances in huge reservoirs etc.) requiring special electrochemical power sources, which are much more expensive of course. In this article we will present a modern way of powering intelligent sensors. Gaining the energy to supply sensors is possible even from immediate sensor's environment. The energy harvesting term is way, how to obtain this ubiquitous energy. Our application is using sophisticated circuit from Linear Technology, which is capable to use even small energy bursts to discontinuous intelligent sensors operations. The heat energy is converted into electric energy which is stored in very high capacity capacitor (about 1F). In case, that accumulated energy is sufficient, the signal "Power Good" is generated. This signal is sign to sensor to perform measuring and data archiving.