Project description
Single device harvests different sources of ambient energy to power IoT sensors
As the number of connected devices increases, so do the batteries that power them. However, the chemical components of batteries can be extremely harmful to the environment. To make the IoT ubiquitous, future devices will need to be self-sufficient and no longer rely on batteries to operate. The EU-funded HarvestAll project will develop an energy management device that removes dependency on batteries. Researchers are working on next-generation silicon chip technology that can simultaneously harvest energy from different nearby sources. These include thermal energy associated with static and dynamic temperature differences, vibration energy from vehicles and light energy from indoor artificial lighting.
Objective
Many IoT market leaders incl. ARM Holdings (the world's leading semiconductor IP supplier) predict that the IoT will begin to free itself from battery power in 2018. Without reducing the reliance on battery power, there is a significant roadblock in reaching trillions of devices. Future devices will need to be self-sufficient and operate without any battery swaps or any human intervention for decades. This will be made possible through harvesting of all the available ambient energy in the environment, for example:
Thermal energy associated with static and dynamic temperature differences;
Vibration energy e.g. from vehicles driving over a bridge or oil following through a pipe;
Light energy from indoor artificial lighting.
For these predictions to be realised, the current roadblock is micro energy harvesting systems that can effectively capture all available energy using just one energy management device. The technical challenge is that these ambient energy sources have widely different electrical characteristics that must be managed e.g: photovoltaic and thermoelectric harvesters are low-voltage DC, resistive, “trickle” sources; electrodynamic harvesters are high-voltage, inductive, “pulsed” sources whilst piezoelectric harvesters are high-voltage AC, capacitive, “bursty” sources.
Trameto is a UK-based fabless semiconductor business that is focusing on bringing ‘HarvestAll’ to market. HarvestAll enables energy harvesting from any-single harvester type, many-identical harvesters and multiple-different harvester types. This functionality is not currently available in the market. This project will help us to: further strengthen our market understanding, formalise existing and build new relationships with partners across the energy harvesting ecosystem to develop our supply chain and routes to market. This project will take us closer to having an exploitable technology that will achieve an ROI of 13.9:1 through sales of our novel energy management chip.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetinternet of things
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorssmart sensors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologybluetooth
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
SA7 9FS SWANSEA
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.