Projects

Fraunhofer IZM leads the FP7 MATFLEXEND project (2013 – 2016), which will provide wearable, flexible energy harvesting and storage devices that can be manufactured in a low-cost printing process, and durable materials for such purpose. The harvesters include an array of mechanical-to-electrical energy converters that comprise capacitors whose effective electrode area is varied by elastic deformation, so that electrical energy can be extracted from them by suitable control electronics, and fed into a battery. Both the capacitor and battery arrays are designed to be inherently flexible.

The harvesters will be designed such that they can scale to a variety of sizes, and can be mass-produced in a continuous process.

MATFLEXEND partners and roles

Besides Fraunhofer IZM, the MATFLEXEND consortium comprises two universities, two more research organizations, one larger industry partner and four SMEs.

Fraunhofer IZM, a known leader in electronic packaging, will lead the design and development of, firstly, the energy harvester which translates deformation energy into electrical energy; secondly, a novel, flexible-by-design secondary lithium-ion battery with coplanar electrodes. IZM will integrate these components into a single device.

University partners Univ. Vienna, Austria and Imperial College London, UK will cooperatively develop innovative materials such as highly durable elastomers, novel multi-phase battery separators, and high-k dielectrics.

CETEMMSA, a Spanish research organization, will investigate production of the device, including its mass manufacturability by printing. LAAS-CNRS of France will contribute an innovative process for electrophoretic deposition (EPD) for a variety of battery electrode materials to be used in the project.

Industry partner VARTA Microbattery GmbH will test and assess industrial manufacturability of the batteries.

The participating SMEs, Comcard GmbH of Germany will work towards integration of such harvesters into a smart card sytem. PARDAM of Czekoslovakia will supply nanomaterials for lithium batteries and high-k dielectrics; SMARTEX of Italy, will design wearable applications in cooperation with its network in the fashion industry, and Anitra Technologies UG of Germany will lead dissemination including IPR work and workshops.

MATFLEXEND´s R+I will thus contribute towards mass-manufacturable, low cost energy harvesting systems, as well as towards applications for such systems. Materials-science spinoffs will include new conductive and non-conductive elastomers, high-k dielectrics, and innovative methods for depositing patterns of such materials.

Timelines and Acknowledgment

MATFLEXEND will run from October 2013 to September 2016.

MATFLEXEND is co-financed by the EU´s DG INFSO under the 7^th Framework Programme.

More Infos: www.matflexend.eu