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

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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.