Materials integration and manufacturing of battery and EH power source for automotive and asset tracking

This project will address the needs of the fast growing Internet of Things (IoT) market by developing materials for challenging environments and a manufacturing process to create the world’s first fully integrated thin film power source. The market needs robust, low maintenance sensor nodes for demanding environments. The power source is a major challenge: it must be robust, work at 100 °C and be maintenance-free. The footprint must be small with high aesthetics for easy integration into the sensor and its operating environment. It should have dimensions comparable to the sensor and other electronics elements but deliver power to fully operate the sensor. This project will build upon Ilika’s thin film solid state battery technology and Sharps light energy harvesting technology, with significant performance improvements expected when combining the two technologies to produce the fully integrated system. We will initially address motorsport/automotive and asset tracking applications but given the strong cross sector applicability of the technology, we anticipate being able to meet the needs of the growing healthcare, transport and industrial markets.