Tiny Solar Energy Module (TSEM)

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Description

This is a 1x1 inch PCB module with two tiny solar cells, a highly efficient Li-Ion battery charger and with two regulated outputs (3.3V and 1.8V). It harvests enough power from INDOOR light to power a simple BLE or LoRa sensor. The board has castellated vias so it can be surface mount soldered onto a mother PCB as well as soldered onto 0.1" headers to be used in a bread board. After the power harvesting challenge (semi finals) I have designed two TSEM derivatives and started selling on Tindie. https://hackaday.io/project/160376-solar-harvesting-into-li-ion-battery and https://hackaday.io/project/160470-solar-harvesting-into-supercapacitor. The last one stores it's energy in supercacitors!

Details

Ideal for indoor applications

The AEM10941 harvesting IC is very suitable for indoor applications because it has an ultra low power startup. The boost converter starts at a very low 380 mV input voltage and 3 uW input power. The IC gets most power out of the solar cells by doing MPPT maximum power point tracking every 5 seconds. In addition the mono crystaline solar cells have a very wide spectral range resulting in 22% efficiency. This makes TSEM very suitable for indoor applications.

How much energy does is harvest indoors?

Indoor light is about 1/100th of outdoor light or 10W/m2. At that power solar cell open voltage is 0.458V and I estimate Vmp at 0.36V per cell. Since we have two in series the booster will work at 0.72V input voltage. At that voltage boost efficiency is about 75% . LiPo charge efficiency is about 95%. Battery current is 5.72 times smaller than the solar current because the voltage increases from 0.72 V to 4.12 Volt. Finally I assume that indoor light is available for 10 hours a day. 44mA * 1/100th * 75% * 95% * 0.72V/4.12V * 10 hrs = 0.55 mAh is harvested every day. So an application must have an average current less than 0.55mAh/24h = 23uA, that's enough for a simple Bluetooth Low Energy beacon or a very simple LoRa application. However if the device is in full sun for only one hour a day it harvests ~10x more: 7 mAh.

If you need to harvest more then you may connect an external solar panel to the castellated via's. Below is a comparison between the on-board solar cells and external solar cells with respect to cost, dimensions, and the energy harvested per day.

Solar panel	Harvested energy per day, indoors (mAh)	Application average current (uA)
2x $1.02 On-board 0.5V/44mA 22x7mm Ixys KXOB22-12X1L	0.55	23
1x $1.06 External 1V/100mA 30x25mm	1.1	45
1x $1.31 External 2V/100mA 79x28mm	2.9	120
1x $1.18 External 4V/100mA 70x70mm	6.7	279

The harvested energy can be stored in this 110mAh 3*20*25mm LiPo battery. This battery fits very nice below the module.

Specifications

PCB 2 layers 25.4 x 25.4 x 0.6 mm (1 x 1 inch)
2 onboard solar cells in series, 0.5V/44mA each, 22 x 7 x 1.8 mm each
harvesting IC input voltage 50mV to 5V. Input current max 110mA. MPPT every 5 secs, MPPT set to 70% (adjustable).
Battery: connect an external 3.7V Li-Po battery
3.3V/80mA and 1.8V/20mA regulated outputs. These are enabled when battery voltage is between 3.60V and 4.12V (max charge voltage)
voltage divider to monitor battery voltage using the host MCU
3.3V status output pin that warns the host MCU if battery voltage drops below 3.60V

Pinout

SRC - solar panel positive terminal, input to the harvesting IC, connect only when you use external solar panel in stead of onboard solar cells

GND - solar panel negative terminal, connect only when you use external solar panel in stead of onboard solar cells

BUCK - can be used to pull SELMPP1 and SELMPP0 high, 2.2V

STATUS - open drain output with 1M pull up, when battery voltage falls below 3.6V it goes low 600ms before the 3.3V output is disabled. Can be used to warn the host MCU to gracefully terminate writing to eeprom/flash and prepare for power outage. Voltage level 0/3.3V.

BAT_MEAS - analog output, provides a divided battery voltage for the host MCU with ratio 10/(4.7+10) =0.68*Vbat

GND -

BAT+ - connects to Li-Po positive terminal

GND - connects to Li-Po negative terminal

3.3V - power supply output, provides 3.3V to your application circuit

GND - ground connection for the 3.3V output

1.8V - power supply output, provides 1.8V to your application circuit...

Files

MIT License.txt

Basically you can do whatever you want with the TSEM files. Waesome

plain - 1.04 kB - 09/15/2018 at 15:27

Download

TSEM.lbr

Eagle library with the TSEM R1 and R2 footprint

lbr - 23.04 kB - 07/18/2018 at 18:12

Download

TSEM_R2.sch

Eagle schematic design R2

sch - 177.41 kB - 07/17/2018 at 19:28

Download

TSEM_R2.brd

Eagle PCB layout design R2

brd - 76.62 kB - 07/17/2018 at 19:28

Download

TSEM GERBER R2.zip

Gerber files as ordered from Elecrow

x-zip-compressed - 42.52 kB - 07/17/2018 at 19:28

Download

Components

2 × IXYS KXOB22-12X1 solar cell 0.5V/44mA solar cell

1 × AEM10941 Highly-Efficient, Regulated Dual-Output, Ambient Energy Manager

Project Logs

Collapse

Video for the HackadayPrize Final
Jasper Sikken • 10/20/2018 at 14:18 • 0 comments

For the HackadayPrize 2018 I designed a Tiny Solar Energy Module. It is cool because it can harvest enough energy from indoor light to power simple BLE or LoRa applications. I am selling two boards on Tinde for $24.90. One stores it's energy into a Li-ion battery, EAMLION, and the other stores it into a pair of supercapacitors, AEMSUCA. The AEMSUCA is really cool because now you can make applications that runs forever from indoor light without a battery!

Tiny Solar Energy Module project on Hackaday.io
https://hackaday.io/project/159139-tiny-solar-energy-module-tsem

AEMLION project on Hackaday.io
https://hackaday.io/project/160376-solar-harvesting-into-li-ion-battery

AEMSUCA project on Hackaday.io
https://hackaday.io/project/160470-solar-harvesting-into-supercapacitors

AEMLION is sold on Tindie for $24.90
https://www.tindie.com/products/jaspersikken/solar-harvesting-into-li-ion-battery/

AEMSUCA is sold on Tndie for $24.90
https://www.tindie.com/products/jaspersikken/solar-harvesting-into-supercapacitors/
Three designs with the AEM10941
Jasper Sikken • 09/23/2018 at 11:32 • 0 comments

In May/June I have designed the 1x1 inch Tiny Solar Energy Module to take part in the HackadayPrize2018 Power Harvesting challenge and won! And then I received a lot of interested in selling it. However since most projects have different power demands and people want to choose their own solar panel, I decided to remove the onboard solar cells and make two even tinier designs derived from the TSEM. They are both 0.8x0.6 inch small. The first is the AEMLION which is charging a Li-ion battery and the second is the AEMSUCA which charges a pair of supercapacitors.

I will be selling the AEMLION and AEMSUCA on Tindie for $24.90. At the moment ELecrow is working on 50 assemblies of each.
Nicely integrated application
Jasper Sikken • 08/02/2018 at 18:51 • 0 comments

I have fitted this 110mAh 3.0x20x25mm Li-Po battery under the TSEM PCB between the header connectors using double sided tape and soldered the wires. It's great because it still fits on a a bread board. It's really compact.
Then I grabbed my BLE temperature humidity sensor, connected it to the 1.8V output.
It works great. I love it!
I have received the mother PCBs
Jasper Sikken • 08/01/2018 at 18:14 • 0 comments

Today I have received 11 mother PCBs. I have ordered them just to make sure the TSEM eagle library part is correct. So I have soldered the TSEM to it and it's great. They came at a ridiculously low proce of $4.90 for 10, and $4.99 for shipping. I received them 10 days after ordering! Thank you Elecrow for making fast beautiful and cheap PCBs.
Received TSEM R2 PCBs. It's working!
Jasper Sikken • 07/31/2018 at 15:54 • 0 comments

Today I have received TSEM R2 PCBs and a solder stencil from Elecrow.

I really like the white soldermask. I actually dont like the silkscreen lines that indicate component outline, I will remove those in a next revsion. I've put all components except the solar cells in the solder paste and used a hot air gun to reflow. The solar cells I soldered using the soldering iron, because they asre sensitive to excessive heat.

Then it was time for the first test and I measured that the 3.3V and the 1.8V outputs were working.

I am happy
Yay, I made it into the Hackaday Prize 2018 finals
Jasper Sikken • 07/24/2018 at 19:23 • 0 comments

I was refreshing the Hacakday.com website for a few days now and finally I read the good news
https://hackaday.com/2018/07/24/twenty-power-harvesting-projects-headed-to-the-hackaday-prize-finals/
The views counter is currently at 2.5k. Let's see next week where it increases to.
TSEM Revision 2. Now it has two! regulated outputs. 3.3V and 1.8V
Jasper Sikken • 07/17/2018 at 19:26 • 0 comments

I have revised the PCB because I want to use the AEM10941 LOW voltage output. So now the TSEM has two regulated output voltages; a 3.3V output (80mA) and a 1.8V output (20mA). I have just ordered the PCBs from Elecrow.
TSEM can be easily incorporated in other builds
Jasper Sikken • 07/14/2018 at 20:51 • 0 comments

To easily integrate TSEM into other Eagle designs I published an Eagle library with the TSEM R1 and R2 symbol and footprint.

To make sure the library part is correct I have designed a mother PCB. A PCB to solder the TSEM to. I have ordered the PCBs from Elecrow for just $4,99. It' amazingly cheap! I expect them in 2 weeks.
Application for TSEM
Jasper Sikken • 07/12/2018 at 20:19 • 0 comments

I have this $13.50 BLE Temperature Humidity Sensor that advertizes the values every second. I measured average current is about 50uA. That's a bit too high current for indoor light harvesting with the two tiny solar cells, but you get the idea. If I would program the a BLE sensor I would make it advertise every 8 seconds to make it low power enough.
It is not a great idea to use the 3.3V output to power a device that is designed for 1x AAA battery. The AEM10941 harvesting IC also has a second regulated output voltage, which is 1.8V. That is lower power because it is efficiently stepped down from the battery voltage using a buck converter. In the next revision of the design I will break out the 1.8V output to the castellated via's
Difference with another ultra low power harvesting board
Jasper Sikken • 07/09/2018 at 19:09 • 1 comment

I saw this article on Hackaday.com about the this BQ25504 Ultra low power Solar LiPo Charger sold by Kris Winer on Tindie. I wish that article was about my TSEM. Here I compare the differences with my TSEM. The BQ25504 is very similar to AEM10941 but it does not have two integrated outputs (3.3V and 1.8V). The BQ25504 Solar Cell LiPo Charger board does not have on board solar cells, it cannot be surface mount soldered, it requires more external passives, and the mppt Voc ratio cannot be changed without changing the passive components.

View all 17 project logs

Discussions

Fausto Yair wrote 10/23/2023 at 16:24

Do you have an approximate how much longer the battery can last when connected to the TSEM?

Are you sure? yes | no

Giovanni wrote 02/17/2021 at 16:48

"Finally I assume that indoor light is available for 10 hours a day. 44mA * 1/100th * 75% * 95% * 0.72V/4.12V * 10 hrs = 0.55 mAh is harvested every day. So an application must have an average current less than 0.55mAh/24h = 23uA, that's enough for a simple Bluetooth Low Energy beacon or a very simple LoRa application. "

I am interested in testing that limit. The IxSolar series is sold as large as 4"x8" on Digikey:

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/solar-cells/514?s=N4IgjCBcpgnAHLKoDGUBmBDANgZwKYA0IA9lANogAMIAusQA4AuUIAykwE4CWAdgOYgAvsQC0AFmQg0kLHiKkKIAEwBmAKzx1dRi0ghhIlUtwlsmTgAIU%2BbHh0gAbFO4ATVqLBUIu1iGJMAJ4M%2BKyuuGhCQkA

If I used monocrystalline, SM262K10L 5.71W 1.02A 5.58V 1.09A 8.661"" L x 4.961""

I am assuming I could get about 832uA continuously from that.

Edit: I understand 5.58V is too much for the input voltage- which is why I am looking into a lower voltage in parallel: https://youtu.be/LDzxifG7VeA?t=584

Other panels that appear to be efficient include:

https://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/electronic-component-solar-panels/indoor-light-series/ll200-2-4-75 at 200 Lux: Power: 0.289mW 3.70 x 2.87 (in)

Operating Voltage: 1.6V

Current: 0.181mA

Average Voc: 2.4V 94.0 x 73.0 (mm) / 3.70 x 2.87 (in)

They also have a design tool, which lets me select number of cells, length and voltages: https://www.powerfilmsolar.com/custom-solutions/custom-solar-panel-design-tool/

I'm not sure which ones are more efficient for indoors, including Amorton AM1816CA, and not focusing on cost at the moment. E-peas mentions up to 7 solar cells in one of their kits, but I would like to know if AEM10941 has any limitations to maximum size of panels- I am looking into designing a microcontroller with integrated solar power manager - Sparkfun offers it as an option: https://alc.sparkfun.com/designer/but requiring 10W panels.

I am not sure if theirs is designed for indoor lighting since I don't know if requires a minimum amount of light to "cold-start" their power manager. Therefore, with an AEM10941, it could jump start trickle charging at a very slow rate, but fast enough to power the Apollo3 microcontroller (this is best in class, excluding the 3uA/mhz Apollo4, set to be released later this year.

Theoretically, I could design four 4x8" panels that would fit around a 17" laptop keyboard with an Ambiq Apollo3 microcontroller that runs continuously, and not on sleep on "less than 1mA": https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15444 and produce 3.3mA.

"operates less than 5mW at full operation)" https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15442 (Features Tab)

Powering the an e-ink or reflective monitor might be more difficult but it is bistable and only uses power on refresh. Therefore if it uses less than 2mA the board could be powered entirely from a ceiling light. This is a 4.4" http://www.koe.j-display.com/index.php?option=product&task=showpage&cur=1&id=251# that uses 5mW if backlight off. I would like to try it with 2.7" https://www.j-display.com/english/product/reflective.html but I think more panels could power a larger screen.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 02/17/2021 at 19:34

You seem to understand my calculations to estimate the amount of daily harvested energy. The AEM10941 input voltage range is max 5V. You need to make sure that the open circuit voltage does not exceed 5V. That often means you need to select 4V or less NOMINAL voltage. Either you put 1 or more 4V solar panels in parallel or put a few lower voltage cells in series. Note that a partial shade on a series string causes the whole string to malfunction. Also note that AEM10941 efficiency drops with solar panel voltage below 1V. So a tradeoff is to select about 2.0V nominal voltage and if you want mor epower you add more in parallel

Are you sure? yes | no

Giovanni wrote 02/17/2021 at 21:20

Thank you, I plan to try my kit soon. I ordered a dev-basic with BQ25570 but will order the AEM10941 after I gain more practice: https://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/development-kits/solar-development-kit

Are you sure? yes | no

warhawk-avg wrote 08/30/2018 at 09:27

Very Very cool...Love the energy harvesting chips...
Such a cool design!
Maybe even a slim cellphone battery mount for the back

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 09/02/2018 at 10:35

Chech this out.

https://hackaday.io/project/159139/log/150347-nicely-integrated-application

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/16/2018 at 17:54

I am working on two designs using the AEM10941 without the onboard solar cells. One charges the a Li-Ion battery and the other charges a pair of super capacitors.

https://hackaday.io/project/160376-solar-harvesting-into-li-ion-battery

https://hackaday.io/project/160470-solar-harvesting-into-supercapacitor

I have ordered the PCB from Elecrow and soon I will test them

Are you sure? yes | no

x893 wrote 08/12/2018 at 21:20

This solar panel - perfect for small devices. I use with LTC3105 (one voltage)

http://akb77.com/g/files/media/image/CT7/solar-2.jpg

Low current but charge small supercap.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/12/2018 at 22:04

now THAT is a tiny booster circuit

Are you sure? yes | no

x893 wrote 08/12/2018 at 22:37

I see AEM10941 datasheet. Looks interesting. Can't find samples but possible buy some chips.

Thanks for information !

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/06/2018 at 18:51

I consider selling TSEM for USD24.90 on Tindie. Would you buy it? Why would you buy this module and not another tiny board like this one? https://www.tindie.com/products/onehorse/bq25504-solar-cell-lipo-charger/

Would you prefer a AEM10941 breakout board without the to onboard solar cells?

Are you sure? yes | no

Kris Winer wrote 08/07/2018 at 15:53

The nice thing about a board with just the boost converter is that you can tailor the selection of solar cell(s) to match the application. I like the 50 mm Panasonic Amorton AM-5412CAR a-Si cells since they are still small but provide 7 mA per hour in full Sun, meaning about 40 mAH per day on average, enough to power a 2 mA device. But the point is that many user don't want to pay in board size and price for solar cells that might not fit their application.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/07/2018 at 20:21

Hi Kris, I think you're right. The board that I will be selling won't have the solar cells and will be much smaller than this one.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/12/2018 at 06:09

I have designed a new PCB and ordered from Elecrow. https://hackaday.io/project/160376-aemlion

Are you sure? yes | no

fabian wrote 08/04/2018 at 17:52

please make a experiment. put this outside on one year and tell me. it working 24h or not.

nothing more

meybe send data to server or other way check device is working or not.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 08/04/2018 at 18:24

What do you think that could fail? Solar cells, capacitors, the AEM10941 IC, resistors, or the the external battery?

Uninterrupted functioning could we be checked by monitoring the 3.3V and 1.8V outputs using another device that logs any voltage dips. In my opinion it may be hard to make such device thats works for a year and does not falsely trigger.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jan wrote 08/05/2018 at 07:12

That fabian has zero projects, criticizes many decisions of makers with zero positive feedback and just asks for changes or "do this or that (please)". Wouldn't even pay attention to this troll...

Are you sure? yes | no

fabian wrote 08/05/2018 at 15:04

my english is not good. Solar is a capricious device.

Rather you would underestimate the size of the panel, but until you do it you will not know. Therefore, do an experiment and you will know if it suits you. Can it work completly offgrid. It is important that it is useful and not just a gadget for nothing. test it. I foud interesting art. meybe help You

https://www.voltaicsystems.com/blog/powering-a-raspberry-pi-from-solar-power/

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 07/17/2018 at 20:13

In PCB revision 2 I added 1.8V regulated output to the TSEM.

Are you sure? yes | no

Robert Poser wrote 07/08/2018 at 19:03

Nice! There are two more solar cells from Ixys with same form factor but higher open circuit voltage available. Have you considered rather using one of them since the booster efficiency would be better there ?

Are you sure? yes | no

[deleted]

[this comment has been deleted]

Robert Poser wrote 07/08/2018 at 19:58

A link is here.

The active cell area decreases a bit with more single cells. Maybe KXOB22-04X3F-ND with 1.8V open circuit voltage is worth trying..?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 07/08/2018 at 19:49

Great idea, I thought they were not available, but I see them at digikey and conrad.de. I ordered a couple of the 1.5V/15mA cells (KXOB22-04X3F). Now effiecincy goes from about 85% (1V) to 95% (3V).

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 07/10/2018 at 15:45

In my design I have 2*0.5V*44.6mA=44.6mW solar cells. To get 10% more booster efficiency I could change to 2*1.5V*13.38mA=40.14mW which is 10% less power. So that doesnt make sense. Then I choose for the more economic 0.5V solar cells.

Are you sure? yes | no

Mark Jeronimus wrote 06/29/2018 at 12:43

I can't find this chip in shops (Farnell etc). Where did you find it?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 06/29/2018 at 20:32

I got a few samples from e-peas. I will ask when chips become available at the large distributors.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 06/30/2018 at 14:02

I dont think they will be available at the large distributors soon. E-pease carefully selected a few distributors. See here. https://e-peas.com/where-to-buy/

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 06/28/2018 at 10:44

@Alexandre LE GALL I learned from e-peas that most of their customers chose for standard configurations that don't require extra pins. I wanted to keep it simple and chose for lipo only (no super capacitor) and use only 3.3V output because that is standard for most MCUs.

Are you sure? yes | no

Alexandre LE GALL wrote 06/28/2018 at 10:17

The AEM10941 is very interesting compared to the BQ25504 (the energy harvest chip I use in my project) : There are two integrated regulator and a balance feature for dual-cell supercapacitor !

I think you would make an external connection for the cvercharge, overdischarge, charge ready, and the balance pins.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jasper Sikken wrote 06/25/2018 at 15:24

Sorry initially I wrote the incorrect part number. Glad you found it

Are you sure? yes | no

Stephen Edwards wrote 06/21/2018 at 08:44

ah found it. https://e-peas.com/products/energy-harvesting/photovoltaic/aem10941/

Are you sure? yes | no

Stephen Edwards wrote 06/21/2018 at 08:41

cant find this chip. Is the code correct?

Are you sure? yes | no

Tiny Solar Energy Module (TSEM)

Description

Details