During the month of July, GAIAPrintor what amounts to the same “Generation and storage of green energy with printed devices for ultra-low-power autonomous electronics”, concluded its research and development phase, obtaining the results of the project.
This is an initiative led by the Navarran Functional printing and funded by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourismas part of the AEI support program – Groups of innovative companies – , which proposes to develop a low-cost modular environment for the generation and storage of clean energy that offers total autonomy to electronic devices with very low consumption.
The project was born pushed by the current context of climate crisis and limitation of raw materials. Its precursors decided to study how to optimize the management of energy and material resources for the manufacture, use and disposal of electronic devices. To do this, they integrate two emerging technologies in the field of printed electronics into ultra-low-power electronic systems. And the goal is to enable full autonomy and high durability in sensing devices and the Internet of Things (IoT).
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
The first step proposed was to manufacture organic photovoltaic modules (OPV) flexible with advanced materials for the production of green energy (Eurecat) and supplement its storage with cheap printed batteries (central style).
The development of ultra-low-power electronics (Electronic Falcon) has been designed to be compatible with different sensors on the market and with a wireless communication system applicable to various applications in the field of sensory and Internet of Things (IoT).
The proposed solution integrates two emerging technologies in the field of printed electronics in ultra-low power electronic systems.
Currently, there are no electronic solutions on the market that are compatible with a large number of different types of sensors, limiting their implementation in different fields. The fact of requiring a specific device for the measurement of each different quantity implies a high cost, as well as an additional complexity as regards its integration in the same installation. Having a “universal” device used to capture the measurement of different types of sensors will promote its implementation in all types of applications.
After months of co-creation work and several pilot tests, the results of the project have now been validated with all the partners.
The current project is not focused on a specific application, but will serve as the basis for as many future applications as possible. After the development of the project, it will be possible to know the capacities and the limits of this mixed device, and thus, to be able to identify the applications where it presents the most competitive advantages. GAIAPrint is just a sample of the potential to bet on Industry 4.0 in our country.