Microelectronic Energy Storage Systems for Integration Alongside Harvesters

Research Project, 2019 – 2020

Electronic devices continue to shrink in size, while having higher performance and expanding functionality. Consequently, these electronic devices require more and more power to operate. Additionally, wired sensors are connected by cables which are bulky, expensive, add interference and limit sensor integratebility. These problems can be solved by a device integrating both a compact energy harvester component and a compact energy storage component. Such a device is potentially self-powering. Currently, there are no good solutions to this problem. Therefore, project MESSIAH seeks to develop an energy storage component which can be integrated with energy harvesters for the development of novel self-powering components. State of the art electrochemical storage components (electrochemical supercapacitors and Li-ion batteries) can be efficiently scaled and store large amounts of energy [1]. In particular, carbon-based micro-supercapacitor (MSC) technology shows great potential for fulfilling these requirements and will be the project focus. MESSIAH seeks to develop high performance MSCs and integrate them with energy harvesters in order to achieve self-powering devices. This will be accomplished through 2 primary tasks:

1. A selected set of methods of synthesizing carbon-based materials will be investigated and compared with regards to the resulting MSC electrode performance. This task of the project addresses presently unresolved questions regarding our fundamental understanding of these materials. Additionally, this task will involve demonstration of working MSCs with target electrode materials. This fabrication will be optimized with models developed in Task 2.

2. Comprehensive models will be built to explore a wide range of MSC physics by examining ion transport in the electrolyte and diffusion characteristics between the ions and the carbon electrodes. These models will be further augmented through statistical analysis in order to be able to predict and optimize MSC behavior from basic material properties. These models will be used to develop a compact model for system level architecture design.