Multiport and multimodal energy harvesting array systems require further circuit advancements. Wearables for health monitoring are an excellent energy harvesting example at raising interest. Further applications: smart city, building/bridge structure and environmental monitoring
- Should be energy autonomous for easy handling, no charger, always ready to go for 24/7 use
- SoA: Only single port harvesters! Require multiport harvesters for multiple asynchronous energy sources!
- Multimodal harvesting (pressure, solar, thermal,…) and arrays increase availability of energy
- Energy harvesting at high conversion efficiency needed
- Provision of energy for: (i) local sensor acquisition, (ii) local data processing, and (iii) Wireless connectivity, WAN needs more energy than BAN
- Wireless connectivity BAN (Body Area Network, e.g. Bluetooth) replaced by WAN (Wide Area Network, cellular IoT)
The primary research goal is the development of improved circuit design for multiport harvesters dealing with asynchronous energy sources in a piezo array
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Can the piezo elements be simultaneously used as sensors and energy providers?
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How to deal with asynchronous energy sources?
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How to ensure high availability and stability of energy?
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How to increase conversion efficiency?
Principal Investigators
 | Prof. Dr. Georg Fischer Institute for Electronics Engineering Department of Electrical, Electronical, and Communication Engineering Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen georg.fischer@fau.de |
 | Prof. Dr. Masashi Kato Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan kato.masashi@nitech.ac.jp |
 | Assoc. Prof. Naoki Kishi Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan kishi.naoki@nitech.ac.jp |
Doctoral Researchers
 | Sumeyya Javaid, M. Sc. Institute of Smart Electronics and Systems Department of Electrical, Electronical and Communication Engineering sumeyya.javaid@fau.de |
Associated Researchers
Prof. PD Dr. rer nat Dr. phil habil Jens Kirchner (FAU): jens.kirchner@fau.de