Dust Networks to Demonstrate Self-Powered IPv6 Wireless Sensor Network

Ultra low power 6LoWPAN WSN runs entirely on harvested energy

HAYWARD, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Dust Networks^®, the leader in intelligent wireless sensor network solutions, today announced that they will demonstrate a SmartMesh^® IP 6LoWPAN wireless network running on harvested energy at the IDTechEx Wireless Sensor Network & RTLS Summit in Munich, Germany, June 21 - 22. For the first time anywhere, all of the nodes in the network, including the IPv6 routing nodes, will run on energy harvested from a variety of devices including the Micropelt TE-Power thermogenerator and the Cymbet™ EnerChip™ CC rechargeable solid state battery trickle-charged by a small off-the-shelf daylight powered solar collector.

“With no wires to install and no batteries to change, the initial and on-going costs of installation and maintenance are slashed.”

“The SmartMesh product family provides a unique convergence with energy harvesting because all of their mesh network nodes can run on harvested energy,” said Burkhard Habbe, Vice President of Business Development for Micropelt GmbH. “With the further decreased power requirements of Dust’s new SmartMesh IP technology we can now run even more applications on thermoharvesters at rather low gradients, eliminating both wires and battery maintenance.”

“By combining EnerChip solid state energy storage solutions with Dust Network’s Eterna™ technology, Cymbet’s customers are able to deploy completely self-powered wireless sensor networks,” said Steve Grady, Vice President of Marketing for Cymbet Corporation. “The overall power requirement is so much lower than with competing wireless products that this is a maintenance-free, extremely compact, eco-friendly networking option.”

“It appears that much of the WSN growth likely in 2011 will be due to market demand for solutions to overall network connectivity and battery-free operational constraints,” said Kirsten West, Principal Analyst with West Technology Research Solutions, an independent market research and consulting firm that follows emerging wireless technologies and the products and industries which will adopt those technologies.

“The practical impact of Dust’s focus on low power 802.15.4 SoCs and networking is evident in this multi-vendor demonstration of self-powered wireless sensing,” said Brenda Glaze, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Dust Networks. “With no wires to install and no batteries to change, the initial and on-going costs of installation and maintenance are slashed.”

The standard SmartMesh IP Evaluation Kit provides everything needed to demonstrate wireless mesh network performance, data monitoring, digital actuation, and event notification. For more information on SmartMesh IP evaluation kits, visit www.dustnetworks.com.

About Dust Networks

Dust Networks is a pioneer in the field of wireless sensor networking, and is defining the way to connect smart devices. Using standards-based network technology, Dust Networks provides reliable, resilient and scalable products with advanced network management and comprehensive security features. Dust’s broad portfolio includes SmartMesh® IP, SmartMesh Industrial/WirelessHART™ and ZigBee®. Dust provides complete wireless systems solutions, including IEEE 802.15.4 mote modules, mote-on-chips and network and security management software and hardware. Dust Networks is the undisputed leader in ultra-low power wireless mesh networks for industrial process automation applications. In providing the foundation for wirelessly connecting smart devices, Dust Networks inspires today’s and tomorrow’s smart data centers, smart factories and smart buildings and all of the intelligent applications enabled by wireless sensor networks. For more information, visit Dust Networks at www.dustnetworks.com.

About Micropelt

Micropelt GmbH, Freiburg, Germany, develops, produces and markets the world’s smallest and most effective thermoelectric elements for clean-tech micro energy harvesting, thermal sensing, cycling and cooling. The company employs 25 staff and currently commissions their first million-unit production facility, also located in Germany.

Micropelt’s thermoelectric chips are based on a patented scalable thin film micro-structuring platform technology, which minimizes component size while maximizing power density for energy harvesting, cooling or thermal cycling applications. Process-inherent economies-of-scale break previous cost and price barriers of conventional thermoelectrics. Batteries become obsolete as cost-free electricity from waste heat powers wireless sensor networks for their entire life. Chip-thermogenerators also boast unprecedented sensitivity, resolution and dynamics in sensing heat flux and temperature change. For more information contact Micropelt or visit the website at http://www.micropelt.com.

About Cymbet

Cymbet Corporation is the leader in solid-state energy storage technology. The company is the first to market eco-friendly rechargeable storage devices that provide embedded systems designers with new embedded power capabilities. The company's EnerChip™ solid state energy devices enable new concepts in energy storage application for ICs and new products for medical, sensor, RFID, industrial control, communications and portable electronic devices. Visit Cymbet online at www.cymbet.com.