Supercapacitor and Low-Power 3V Battery Team to Power Wireless Sensor Nodes

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, May 11 (MARKET WIRE) --
In a technical paper delivered April 27 at the IEEE IT New Generations
Conference in Las Vegas, Pierre Mars, vice president of applications
engineering for supercapacitor-pioneer CAP-XX Limited (LSE: CPX),
presented a supercapacitor-enabled solution for wireless sensor nodes
powered by a 3V button battery or other low-power energy source.

Small wireless sensor nodes are now ubiquitous in security systems, fire
alarms, asset and people tracking units and condition monitoring systems
for industrial, commercial and residential applications. A low-power
energy source -- such as a 3V watch battery or a solar, heat or
vibration-energy-harvesting module -- can usually supply the average power
required by the system, but may not be able to provide the peak power to
transmit data over wireless networks such as IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee),
802.11 (WLAN) or GSM/GPRS.

For example, supporting even the modest demands of a Zigbee transmission
(peak power 10 - 100mA) will shorten a 3V button battery's life, and
require a larger battery than would be necessary to support the average
load power. Even worse, a 3V battery cannot support a GSM or GPRS
transmission (peak power 1 - 2A) at all without some additional source of
power.

The CAP-XX BritePower solution resolves these issues with a single-cell,
thin-form supercapacitor that stores energy generated at low power by the
battery or from the environment, and then delivers it in high power bursts
for data collection and transmission. The paper outlines innovative power
architectures, showing designers how to use a single-cell CAP-XX
supercapacitor rated at 2.7V in conjunction with a 3V energy source,
instead of a larger and costlier dual-cell supercapacitor rated at 3V or
more. Using a single-cell supercapacitor also reduces the leakage current
of the power solution, thereby increasing battery life and reducing energy
losses from environmental harvesting modules.

The technical paper is available at
http://www.cap-xx.com/news/news.htm#InTheNews, while the presentation can
be viewed at http://www.cap-xx.com/resources/pres_wp/pres_wp.htm.

Supercapacitors combine the energy-storage capability of batteries with
the rapid charge and discharge characteristics of conventional
capacitors. They store electrical energy during periods of low-load
power, and then release it in quick "bursts" during peak-power events,
supplementing power drawn from the source and smoothing out voltage
fluctuations.

About CAP-XX:

Sydney, Australia-based CAP-XX is a world leader in thin, flat
supercapacitors for space-constrained electronic devices. Supercapacitors
resolve the performance limitations of batteries and other current-limited
power supplies and provide backup power if the primary power source fails.

CAP-XX supercapacitors enable manufacturers to make smaller, thinner,
longer-running and more feature-rich devices such as camera phones, SSDs,
PDAs, wireless sensors and medical devices. The company is listed on the
Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London. For more information, visit
http://www.cap-xx.com or email sales@cap-xx.com.

Contact:
Michelle Moody
Moody & Associates
+1-214-363-3460
Email Contact

Copyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

-0-