METATHERM aims at the demonstration of a versatile energy harvesting and communication system for environment sensors arrays allowing the development of autarkic operation devices without any maintenance. The novelty builds up from several different innovations, the main one being the antenna, based on epsilon engineering using metamaterials, allowing the antenna to show extremely high gain and an extreme compactness. The energy efficiency of the antenna and the general principle of operation allows the electrical power need to be drastically decreased, which allows the consideration of novel energy harvesting technologies to be used to power the system.
EXCELLENCE:
In METATHERM, the thermal energy of the sun is harvested using a novel ionic thermoelectric (iTE) device. This technology is based on ion migration under a thermal gradient and show higher Seebeck coefficient than usual Tellurium based semiconductors without the use of rare or toxic elements: a significant advantage in the context of the rapidly growing energy demand for IoT and nomad electronic systems.
Used in addition to a supercapacitor to store the electrical energy and a thermal energy storage device, the METATHERM platform will allow continuous operation of the device day and night. Moreover, due to the similarity in device structure between the iTE device and the supercapacitor, METATHERM will benefit from manufacturing know how of the latter. A substantial maturity level increase is then expected for the iTE devices.
Finally, the project aims at the development of a platform integrating all these technology in a single device, and exploration of its potential applications. Main applications consist in the use of the MW emitted or reflected signal to probe the environment for natural event monitoring (avalanche, landslide, earthquakes…), for infrastructure and building monitoring (bridges, industrial site…) and for airport ground traffic monitoring.
OBJECTIVES:
The general objective of the project is the development of a communication platform and energy harvesting power source for autarkic sensors arrays. Potential application is outdoor sensing, for which the heat provided by sunlight absorption will be converted to electrical power using iTE devices and stored in a supercapacitor. In addition, a heat storage module will be used to further allow the iTE device to continue working during the night. The harvested power will be used to produce an RF signal thanks to the metamaterial antenna and its superior gain and compactness.
Two potential application families are identified: either the use of the METATHERM system to power and transmit data from sensors integrated in the platform (temperature, humidity, gas sensing etc..) or the use of the RF signal emitted by the system as an environment sensing signal for an additional receiving antenna.
More generally, the METATHERM technology can find numerous applications in the IoT field, for which an autarkic energy harvesting platform using no rare or toxic element could represent a breakthrough for a wide deployment and hence could address large size markets.
Distributed sensor systems are the very key example for the "Internet of Things". Some are remotely operating, mobile sensors and tiny storages that are running on a battery and being read out and recharged at the end of a 'journey'. Other examples are distributed locally and connected to some kind of supply and communicate either wirelessly or via cable, too. The best solution would be a sensor that operates independently, does not require recharging, and communicates 100% wirelessly, making it perfectly autarkic. The promise: Such a sensor solution is not far from reality; all building block of it are already either reality or on the verge of implementation. The goal of METATHERM is exactly to prove this promise to be true.
