Novel microchip can operate even when battery runs out, researchers claim

Engineers claim to have developed an innovative microchip, called BATLESS, that can continue to operate even when the battery runs out, an advance that may lead to longer lasting devices, especially those which demand extreme power efficiency.

BATLESS, as described at International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2018 Conference held in the US, is designed with a new power management technique that allows it to self-start and continue to function under dim light without any battery assistance, using a very small on-chip solar cell.

According to the researchers, including those from the National University of Singapore (NUS), the microchip may substantially reduce the size of batteries required to power sensor nodes in Internet of Things (IoT) devices which are connected with each other over the internet.

They said the new microchip could make the IoT sensor nodes 10 times smaller and cheaper to produce.

"We have demonstrated that batteries used for IoT devices can be shrunk ...