New MIT chip harvests energy from light, heat and vibrations

One thing about modern day devices would be this – they are not exactly the most efficient items lying around the home. After all, how many of you moderate users of a smartphone are able to make it last for an entire two days without the need to recharge? Hardly, it is more often than not a case of charging up that device when evening falls right before you retire for the night. Well, a team of MIT researchers have managed to come up with a new chip that is said to be able to harvest energy from a trio of sources – and this happens not one at a time, but rather, simultaneously, relying on light, heat and vibrations to get the job done.

Just how is this made possible? Well, the whole reason this can happen is due to a sophisticated control system which is capable of rapidly make a switch between the three sources all the time so that not an iota of energy is wasted, not to mention it will need not draw additional power than required itself during the process. Energy harvested from secondary sources are stashed away in capacitors that can be used at a latter period. Hopefully such a mechanism will be able to be included in future devices.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: mit