Development of multi-source micro energy harvesting power management devices

Project Information

HarvestAll

Grant agreement ID: 827645

DOI

10.3030/827645

Project closed

EC signature date 23 July 2018

Start date 25 June 2018

End date 24 October 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

TRAMETO LIMITED
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HarvestAll (Development of multi-source micro energy harvesting power management devices)

Reporting period: 2018-06-25 to 2018-10-24

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

As the deployment of The Internet of Things (IoT) accelerates there is a significant business opportunity in the elimination of disposable batteries from smart sensors within the IoT. To enable this, Trameto is developing a novel power management product family ‘HarvestAll™’ which allows energy harvesting from any form of ambient energy such as light, thermal difference and vibrations; in a market forecast to be worth €3 Billion in 2023.
For these predictions to be realised, micro energy harvesting systems will need to effectively capture all of the available energy using just one energy management device. The technical challenge is that these ambient energy sources have widely different electrical characteristics. 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.

The development and commercialisation of HarvestAll™ is important for society given the reported and expected of IoT sensors. These sensors can be connected to the electrical mains, where cost and logistics allow, but are typically powered using batteries. However, batteries have very limited lifetimes, for example, a Bluetooth sensor with 5-second measurements would only last 12 months on a lithium (CR2032) battery.
With the huge number of IoT devices currently in operation and with forecasts from industry leaders showing more than a trillion connected devices by 2035 – batteries cannot be a long-term solution for IoT sensor systems and AWD. As a result, there are substantial operational, financial and environmental challenges to replacing batteries.
The objectives of this project were designed to help progress the commercial awareness and understanding of the opportunity that HarvestAll™ can address. Through this project, we aimed to:

- Strengthen our industry relationships
- Enhance and update our market knowledge through primary discussions with industry leaders
- Establish relationships with key international customers - match product definition and roadmaps with customer needs
- Identify a network of international partners with complementary technologies for further product development
- Establish routes to market by building a global supply chain and sales networks

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the project Trameto conducted five key activities:

Task 1 – Voice of Customer and establish partnerships - Europe (Strategic territory one), Task 2 – Further establish partnerships – Japan (Strategic territory two), Task 3 – Voice of Customer and Partnership development by attending the industry leading Sensor Expo 2018, Task 4 - Designed and initiate supply chain, Task 5 – Preparation for further fund-raising requirements.

Feedback regarding the work conducted from a multitude of ecosystem customers and partners has reinforced our view that significant demand exists for a power management integrated circuit that has the capability of harvesting energy from any type of generator, many types of the same generator and multi types of different generators. We have labelled this unique capability as any-many-multi™ (trademarked during this project). The demand for HarvestAll™ is evidenced by a volume of letters of support and a number of other agreements that are currently in consideration; these cover joint development of IoT solutions for a wide range of applications.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This action has enabled us to progress our preparations for commercialization, and we are now aiming to use our in-depth knowledge to build a robust plan for market introduction of HarvestAll™. Part of these activities will include a project that will allow us to complete first demonstrations of our technology on silicon devices. This is a significant hurdle to overcome for the commercialization of any novel silicon device. By the end of the complete action (including Phase 2), we will have taken our current technology through a development cycle to achieve a mass production ready device.
This project has reinforced to us our competitive edge and verifies that our value proposition is unique, is technically advanced, and that we can gain significant market traction. With further development of HarvestAll™ we have received confidence from the market to justify our claims of achieving annual revenues of €100M per annum by 2023. Achieving these forecasts will bring financial growth to Trameto, our partners and also bring job growth across the entire supply chain.

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