Chinese firm Etag Tech is using energy harvesting technology from Atmosic to power its electronic shelf labels (ESLs).

California-based Atmosic Technologies specialises in energy harvesting wireless platforms for the IoT. The partnership with Etag Tech adds low power wireless energy harvesting to the ESL portfolio.

Etag is using Atmosic’s ATM2 systems-on-chip (SoCs) for several ESL designs and will be incorporating Atmosic’s ATM3 SoC in future designs to take advantage of energy harvesting technology.

“By helping to solve the battery problems associated with electronic displays, we anticipate that ESLs will see much wider adoption across the retail industry and other sectors,” said David Su, CEO of Atmosic. “Not only does Atmosic’s technology cut down on the cost of replacing batteries, but it also reduces the maintenance time needed for fleets of ESL display deployments.”

Etag selected Atmosic’s ATM2 series over a proprietary implementation because Atmosic’s products have better power savings. The ATM2 is Bluetooth 5 compliant and integrates Atmosic’s lowest power radio technology to reduce power consumption to low enough for ESLs and other connected devices to last years on a single battery, without needing replacement.

Etag is also looking at deploying the ATM3 series in its next ESL designs to take advantage of Atmosic’s controlled energy harvesting technology, which can harvest energy from ambient light. The same SoC can also harness from other sources including radio, mechanical and kinetic motion, and even thermal sources to reduce battery consumption. In some cases, the ATM3 can enable devices to operate without any batteries at all.

Xia Jieming, CEO of Etag Tech, said: “Atmosic’s ultra-low power ATM2 SoC makes ESL products more robust in terms of interactivity and speed, in addition to removing the need for battery replacement. Atmosic’s technology is also easy to integrate into a range of ESL sizes and designs.”

Today, ESLs are most popular in retail environments, but there are other industries where they can be useful including healthcare, manufacturing, enterprises and travel. ESLs allow companies to update information in real time and better manage inventory, without the hassle of constantly replacing paper signage and stickers. They can be more cost-effective than LCDs and tablets, making them suitable for environments where hundreds or even thousands might be on display in a store or other environment.

Atmosic Technologies is a fabless semiconductor company, designing low power wireless and energy harvesting products to reduce device dependency on batteries. The company’s products help the IoT device ecosystem lower costs and efforts associated with maintaining connected devices in personal, home, auto, healthcare, industrial, enterprise and smart cities segments.

Etag’s products are deployed in more than fifty countries including Russia, USA, Canada, Qatar, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Netherlands, Singapore, France, Spain, South Korea, India, Mexico, Romania, Oman, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Malaysia.