NANOHMICS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF191-046

Description

Energy harvesting is currently a topic of intense interest as a result of the growing energy demands of society and as a means to create autonomous and self-powered systems such as powering wireless network nodes using ‘local’ energy sources. Recent research shows that there are different methods to best scavenge each different source of energy which include the use of photo–voltaic materials for light sources, thermoelectric and pyroelectric materials for heat sources, as well as piezoelectric materials for mechanical vibration sources. Nanohmics has expertise and experience of developing thermoelectric devices and piezoelectric cantilever/materials which can be utilized to fabricate a compact (6cm x 6cm) and light weight hybrid energy harvester to produce 25 – 210 mW of electrical power at 5V output from 10 – 60⁰C temperature gradients and 10 – 100Hz/0.5 – 9m/sec2 mechanical energy sources available in Airforce-aircrafts. The harvested power is enough to run wireless network sensors for hours consistently and reliably.