High efficient III-V on Silicon Energy Harvesting devices for low cost battery-free IoT applications

The consortium comprising Lightricity (Lead partner), ICS, IQE and Microsemi aims to produce ultra-efficient and cost effective III-V on Silicon energy harvesting devices that can be tailored for cost sensitive miniaturised IoT applications.

Utilising technology developed through many years of innovation, Lightricity's technology already delivers world leading efficiency (\>30% efficiency) in low light level indoor environments. Design and transfer of that technology onto large Silicon substrates (up to 12 inch) will leverage existing Silicon-based mass production facilities. IQE has many years of epitaxial experience growing Ge on Si templates for III-V overgrowth.

Combined with innovative wafer-level processing techniques developed at ICS and embedded die packaging technology at Microsemi, this project will drastically reduce the manufacturing costs and enable rapid scale-up of Lightricity technology into cost sensitive and size-constrained applications (asset tracking, industrial IoT), or more power-hungry applications (e.g. gas sensors, imaging devices).

The key deliverable is a low cost miniaturised III-V on silicon energy harvesting device that will provide renewable power to two proof of concept demonstrators covering two main IoT segments: industrial and retail. The partners will demonstrate applicability of the newly developed low-cost Energy Harvesting component on a self-powered wireless Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tracker and Electronic Shelf Labels prototypes.

Route to market and future exploitation of the technology within the retail industry will be supported by unpaid end-user Ahead-of-the-Curve, a spin-out from Unilever. Wireless connectivity will be supported by device manufacturer Dialog Semiconductor (unpaid partner), providing ultra-low power and small footprint wireless BLE chipsets.

Beyond the energy harvesting field, this project will also open up new opportunities for deployment of reliable and high performance III-V devices into low cost sensors and consumer electronics.