Integrated Micro-Energy Sources

Contact: Dr. Nerea Alayo
Ongoing projects: HARVESTORE, EPISTORE, FEMIoT
Selected Publications:
Powering the IoT revolution with heat, Nature Electronics 2 (2019) 270
High performance LATP thin film electrolytes for all-solid-state microbattery applications, J. Mater. Chem. A 9 (2021) 17760
– Full ceramic micro solid oxide fuel cells: towards more reliable MEMS power generators operating at high temperatures, Energy and Environ. Sci. 7 (2014) 3617

Batteries, with inherent limited capacity, have dominated the power supply of small devices for decades. However, despite the fast evolution in the field, the energy gap between the capacity of the current battery technology and the power requirements is increasing year by year. This energy divergence brings a great challenge on portable generation that opens new opportunities for technologies beyond Li-ion. ATLAB develops new miniaturized power sources based on thin films (micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and micro-ASSBs) and nanostructures (micro-TEGs). We aim to break the traditional operating limitations of these devices and, ultimately, integrate them into silicon technology for power-on-chip concepts.

Beyond individual micro-energy sources, ATLAB develops hybrid devices able to harvest and store energy (what we call “harvestorers”).