CORONA, Calif., 13 June 2007. Many of the companies getting a jump on "the next big thing" in power management are targeting energy harvesting for low-power applications in sensors and other devices.

Energy harvesting for these kinds of low-power applications, which converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, involves skimming energy off of ambient vibrations, heat, or light to free devices from the maintenance and replacement issues of batteries.

Most of the companies in the low-power energy-harvesting business are not well-known in the power supply industry; many of them are start-ups based in Europe like EnOcean in Oberhaching, Germany; Ubiwave in Zele, Belgium; and Perpetuum in Southampton, England.

Companies like Powercast LLC in Ligonier, Pa., and Perpetuum have commercial products, while others are still in the prototype stage. The companies offering piezoceramic materials, such as The Face Electronics LC in Norfolk, Va., are more established, with energy harvesting only one of the industries they supply to.

Companies and applications such as these are highlighted in a report from Darnell Group Inc. in Corona, Calif., called "Competitive Environment." his 62-page report, which is part of Darnell's energy harvesting, micro batteries, and power management ICs series, discusses the activities of low-profile companies poised to have a big impact.

"Like most emerging technologies, the energy harvesting landscape has many specialized competitors," technologies," says the report's author, Linnea Brush, senior analyst with Darnell Group. "The profiles in this report cannot cover them all, but it does provide a detailed review of the more significant products and technologies."

Many of the energy harvesting companies have found it useful to partner with IC companies. IDS Microchip in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has a near field communications solution they did for Texas Instruments, for example. EnOcean is working with the Fraunhofer Institute in Munich, Germany. Perpetuum is working with Dust Networks in Hayward, Calif.

Many of these companies are members of the ZigBee Alliance, as well. The IEEE 802.15.4 standard (ZigBee) is now expected to co-exist with other standards such as Z-Wave, Insteon, LonTalk and others. For more information contact Darnell Group online at www.darnell.com.