Versatile Energy Harvesting Systems For Self-Powered Wireless Sensors (Energy Harvesting Europe 2017)

Energy Harvesting Systems will enable maintenance-free operation of wireless sensors. However, these systems have to compete with batteries, because maintenance costs are not always considered in system design of new applications. This makes it mandatory for energy harvesting systems to be not only fully self-powered and thus maintenance-free, but also low-cost to be competitive with battery-based power supplies. The presentation will introduce versatile vibration and thermal harvester systems for different application scenarios to realize self-powered, maintenance-free wireless sensors.

Dr. Peter Spies studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Erlangen / Germany and graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. degree in 1997. In 2010, he finished his PhD thesis on the topic of power saving in mobile communication devices.

 

Since 1998, he is with the Fraunhofer IIS, power efficient systems department. He was working on the field of multi-standard front-ends and system simulations for communication applications. Since 2001 he is group manager of the "integrated energy supplies" group where he is doing research and design on the field of power and battery management, energy transmission and energy harvesting. Focus of his group is integrated circuit and system design as well as software development. Most important applications are wireless sensor networks or hybrid and electrical vehicles.

Founded in 1985, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, ranks first among the Fraunhofer Institutes concerning headcount and revenues. As the main inventor of mp3 and universally credited with the co-development of AAC audio coding standard, Fraunhofer IIS has reached worldwide recognition.