Computer Controls is consistently expanding its product portfolio with energy-generating light cells

CCAG, the Swiss IT distribution house with an international reputation, has signed a distribution agreement with the Swedish scale-up Epishine, for "Organic Indoor Light Energy Harvesting Modules (LEHs").

With the "energy harvesting light cells" from Sweden, CCAG is now offering an interesting, efficient and flexible alternative in its product portfolio to companies that research and produce in the field of sustainable battery management.

The light cells for indoor use are optimized in such a way that they generate enough power from the ambient light of LEDs or fluorescent tubes to fully or partially secure the power supply for wireless indoor applications with low power consumption, such as IoT devices or various sensors. Even the smallest amount of light is "harvested" and stored in the integrated energy storage device in order to guarantee the uninterrupted operation of the devices even in complete darkness for several days. An aspect that is of interest to end customers is the omission of maintenance costs for battery replacement and the reduced use of single-use batteries has a significantly lower impact on the environment and finite resources. In addition, the light cells from Epishine are non-toxic, based on organic electronics and are encapsulated in recyclable plastic. The scalability of the cells, which is important for development engineers, is given by the fact that the entire manufacturing process is based on various techniques of flexibly printed electronics (roll-to-roll | R2R process) and the thin, light design with a thickness of only 0.2 mm can easily be integrated into typical Electronics housings based on plastic.

One of the most recent pilot projects in which the light cells are being used successfully are food refrigerated counters in which the cells work reliably in temperatures below zero of up to -20 °C and generate electricity from the counter's own lighting. Since commercially available batteries quickly reach their performance limit by losing up to 50% of their capacity at sub-zero temperatures, this application shows, among other things, one of the versatile technical and economic uses of these light cells. Epishine LEHs are flexible and can be used alone or in tandem with capacitors to replace batteries or extend their life in low power applications.

With this new product access, CCAG shows its customers once again that it has understood their innovative strength and, as a full-range supplier, it can help to advance the development of new products until they are quickly and competitively marketed. CCAG offers interested customers access to various reference designs from companies such as e-peas, Miromico or SiLabs, and Epishine has a compact lux logger available for feasibility studies that determines whether the light output at the place of use is sufficient for the planned application.