Pioneering chip extends sensor battery life

[EEVblog]

Ok, I'm all for new ultra low power stuff, but my marketing hype  detector went off here.

Countless solutions exist for nA and low uA level sensing. So even a paltry CR1616 battery will last 50,000+ hours (5.7 years, almost shelf life) at 1uA.
There is always some niche application of course, but I can't help but think the marketing is a bit thick on this one.
What am I missing?

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2017/february/voltage-detector-chip-.html



http://www.bristol.ac.uk/engineering/research/em/research/zero-standby-power/

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/engineering/research/eem-group/zero-standby/UB20M_Datasheet_Rev.1.2.pdf

[kaz911]

I don't think it is bull

but applications are slightly limited. In the first video below they show RF detection - but many sensors live in the 433/868/915 space - so if you tried to use it on those bands I doubt you would save any energy... Plus many sensors requires settlement time before they sense the "right" things.

The only thing that might be smart is a "closed" RF frequency to kick sensors into sensing (so send a ping on XXX MHz isolated frequency and then wake up the main device.

The powerline wakeup by IR diode is smart enough - as microscopic power can be harvested from a photo diode. (2nd video)







I can also see it used for magnetic switches - like door/window sensors.

[kaz911]

and more things it could be used with

Gas/Electric meters that send a EM "pulse" ping for each rotation (Like TheLoop or Smappee could use it)

TheLoop btw has 15 year battery life they claim so maybe something similar is already in there (wireless transmitter that transmit Gas consumption to the main unit)

[mikeselectricstuff]

I almost did a bullshit-debunking video on this.

The demo with the TV is utterly pointless as other factors will be orders of magnitude higher than receiver standby current.

It's also not clear how it deals with situations where the sensor is continuously activated by stray signal ( e.g. CCFL/LED lights)

I also wonder if you could get similar functionality with a few high-gain transistors in a triple-darlington type arrangement.

[EEVblog]

I almost did a bullshit-debunking video on this.
The demo with the TV is utterly pointless as other factors will be orders of magnitude higher than receiver standby current.

Exactly.
It's like they have developed this nice little flea power chip and then the Bristol uni marketing department got a hold of it.

[EEVblog]

I don't think it is bull

The claim of zero standby power is bull.

Look at the schematic of their box:


Where does the 12V come from? How is that DC supply consuming no quiescent current?
The answer is it's not. It's a bit of a smoke and mirrors demo. They are measuring the TV standby power after the 12V plugpack.
Sure the TV now longer consumes it's own standby power, but the 12V plugpack still is!
Their claim is that it eliminates all standby power, that it