Micro Energy Harvesting

Research Training Group Micro Energy Harvesting – GRK 1322

The applicability of distributed and embedded microsystems is directly dependent on the reliable and long-term supply of energy to nodes in decentralized systems. New technologies are developed in the research training group Micro Energy Harvesting that enable sensor nodes to operate autonomously without batteries or cables.

The 21 scholarship students in the research training group work to develop new strategies of converting, storing, and managing energy. Their research includes the development of generators which harvest light, heat, movement, or chemical energy in the local environment of sensor nodes and convert this into electrical energy. The research training group also focuses on new materials for converting and storing energy and on microelectronic solutions for energy conversion.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF), the Institut für Mikro- und Informationstechnik of the Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft (HSG-IMIT), and IMTEK have joined their research competence in the fields of decentralized energy engineering, microsystems engineering, and materials science to pursue comprehensive research in this ambitious field in this network unique in all of Germany.

The research training group also works together with regional and national partners, such as Endress+Hauser, SICK AG, Siemens AG, Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG, HSG-IMIT, and Enocean GmbH.