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

由Lightricity(主要合作伙伴)、ICS、IQE和MicroSemi组成的财团致力于在硅能量收集设备上生产超高效和高性价比的III-V，这些设备可以为对成本敏感的小型化物联网应用量身定做。利用经过多年创新开发的技术，Lightricity的技术已经在微光室内环境中提供了世界领先的效率(30%的效率)。这项技术的设计和转移到大型硅衬底(最大12英寸)上将利用现有的硅基大规模生产设施。IQE拥有多年用于III-V过度生长的Ge on Si模板的外延经验。结合ICS开发的创新晶圆级处理技术和MicroSemi的嵌入式芯片封装技术，该项目将极大地降低制造成本，并使Lightricity技术能够快速扩展到成本敏感型和尺寸受限的应用(资产跟踪、工业物联网)或更耗电的应用(如气体传感器、成像设备)。主要交付产品是低成本的小型硅能源采集设备III-V，它将为涵盖两个主要物联网领域的两个概念验证演示器提供可再生电力。合作伙伴将展示新开发的低成本能量收集组件在自供电无线蓝牙低能量(BLE)跟踪器和电子货架标签原型上的适用性。进入市场的路线和零售业未来对该技术的开发将得到联合利华剥离出来的无偿最终用户Ahead-of-the-Curve的支持。无线连接将由设备制造商Dialog Semiconductor(无偿合作伙伴)提供支持，提供超低功耗和小占地面积的无线BLE芯片组。除了能源收集领域，该项目还将为在低成本传感器和消费电子产品中部署可靠和高性能的III-V设备开辟新的机会。

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.