Thin Film Materials Integration for Harvesting Energy Devices

Dear Colleagues,

Energy harvesting systems have been subjected to many research and industrial developments in the past decade, due to the growth in the popularity of low-power electronic devices, such as wireless networks, wearables, and consumer electronics, among other applications. Energy harvesters are self-sustaining systems capable of capturing, processing, storing and applying small amounts of free energy from the environment to usable electrical energy in low-power electronics. These are composed of three stages: the micro-generator or source transducer, the voltage booster or power converter and the storage element. Piezoelectric, thermoelectric, electromagnetic RF, and photovoltaic techniques are some examples of energy harvesting technologies. One example is the development of piezoelectric materials for mechanical vibrations, however some drawbacks must be addressed in order to integrate the different materials into silicon, not only in the harvesting stage, but also to embed a power management electronic circuit. Another approach is the use of silicon nanostructures as thermoelectric thin film devices for energy harvesting. Accordingly, this Special Issue research papers, and review articles that focus on materials characterization and its integration into harvesting devices, electronic architectures to improve the efficiency in the energy harvesting system, such as the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuits, microfabrication and process integration for the energy transducers, and power management electronic systems for novel developments in the field of harvesting energy applications.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Dr. Roberto Carlos Ambrosio
Guest Editor

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