Efficient photovoltaics drive miniaturized, long-life field detection IoT node micro energy system
Efficient photovoltaic micro-energy, field IoT node, longevity and maintenance free.
Type
Tags
Solution maturity
Mass promotion / Mass production
Applicable industry
Applications
Key innovations
The innovation points of this project are: integrating high-efficiency crystalline silicon and low-cost thin film solar cells, and combining micro-energy management technology to achieve daytime photovoltaic and night lithium battery power supply. Using 3DMCM three-dimensional packaging, the volume is greatly reduced to 8 cubic centimeters. The low-power design (sleep-wake mechanism) guarantees a long life and provides continuous power supply for 15 days on cloudy days.
Potential economic benefits
Significantly reduce the maintenance costs and labor of IoT nodes, extend the service life, promote the large-scale application of technology, and have generated license revenue and output value, with broad market prospects.
Potential climate benefits
The system uses high-efficiency photovoltaic technology to replace traditional disposable battery power supply with renewable solar energy, directly reducing carbon emissions from battery production, transportation and disposal.
Solution supplier
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Shanghai Institute of Microsystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Shanghai Institute of Microsystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a national research and development center for microsystems and information technology, innovating core devices and key technologies, empowering intelligent manufacturing, aerospace and other fields.
Shanghai，China
Solution details
- Research background
The project "Development of High-efficiency Photovoltaic Driven Micro Energy System for Miniaturization and Long-Life Field Detection of IoT Nodes" belongs to the field of new energy technology. Traditional IoT nodes are usually powered by primary power sources (non-rechargeable). When the power is exhausted, the power supply needs to be manually replaced, which brings inconvenience to node maintenance in field application scenarios and affects the large-scale application promotion of nodes. Based on more than ten years of research on the design and production of miniaturized energy, the project team has innovatively researched and developed a microenergy integrated system based on high-efficiency photovoltaic technology, micro energy management technology, signal detection and processing technology, and wireless transceiver technology to realize daytime photovoltaic power supply, night lithium battery power supply mode, and at the same time, low-power management of energy, greatly extending node life and realizing unattended IoT nodes. The project team has achieved a series of original technical inventions through research, which will drive the application of Internet of Things technology in the field. It has application potential in field island prevention and control, forest fire prevention, environmental monitoring, and urban intelligent security monitoring applications. The project is supported by the Shanghai City Natural Science Foundation of China.
2. Research content and innovation
In view of the shortage of existing IoT nodes requiring manual battery replacement, we developed a miniaturized integrated energy supply unit based on photovoltaic power supply and lithium battery energy storage, coordinated the design of power consumption of sensors and wireless transceiver modules, and developed a low-power, long-life IoT power supply unit.
Research content: 1. Through optimal design of the cell structure, five crystalline silicon high-efficiency solar cells with an efficiency of up to 19% were prepared using plasma film forming process (Each piece has an area of 2×2 square centimeters) and is sealed on the periphery and upper surface of the node to fully absorb solar energy, under the control of the electronic control circuit;2. Carry out research on lithium battery materials and structural properties, and carry out research on electrodes and electrolytes., explore miniaturized integration ways for light storage in lithium batteries;3. Adopt 3DMCM technology to stack and package the control circuit, lithium battery and RF transceiver module in three-dimensional manner to significantly reduce the size of the node; The main control chip of the control circuit consumes less than 1 milliwatt and has a volume of less than 8 cubic centimeters. In the end, it provides nodes with uninterrupted power supply on cloudy days for more than 15 consecutive days; provides technical means for field IoT nodes to work around the clock, and provides technical ideas for similar miniaturized energy systems. Innovation points: 1. High efficiency and low cost: Using band-gap gradient method and surface anti-reflection technology to reduce optical reflection on the surface and improve the optical absorption efficiency inside the cell, a high-efficiency thin film solar cell was developed with an efficiency of 10%. It passed the acceptance of the Shanghai City Science and Technology Commission (Attachment: Acceptance Opinions). The efficiency is equivalent to 1/5 of that of similar compound solar cells and 1/2 of that of crystalline silicon solar cells, ultimately reducing the overall cost of the node;2. Miniaturization: For the first time, 3DMCM packaging technology was used to integrate sensors, RF modules, energy storage batteries and solar cells to reduce the system volume. The total volume is 8 cubic centimeters, with good concealment and high volumetric power density.(20.5Wh/l);3. Long life: Adopt a low-power control circuit design scheme to reduce the static power consumption of the circuit, adopt a sleep-wake mechanism to save working loss, and ensure that data is sent once every hour. It can work normally on cloudy days for 15 consecutive days;4. System energy evaluability: Comprehensively considering energy capture, transmission and loss, the energy capture and storage optimization design is applied to solar-lithium battery micro energy for the first time. By adjusting electrical parameters and structural parameters, an optimization design method is formed, which improves the predictability of production.
3. Achievements and applications
After years of research, the project team has formed a series of research results. Twelve papers were collected as SCI or EI with the first author, and a total of more than 80 citations were cited. Ten patents have been formed, of which 3 have been authorized and 1 has been licensed for enterprise use. As the person in charge, more than 5 projects have been undertaken, with project funding of more than 2 million yuan. The developed micro-energy nodes were evaluated by DuPont Solar (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Tao 'er Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Libang High-tech Development Co., Ltd. License fee of 500,000 yuan, create output value of 300,000 yuan
Last updated
01:01:04, Nov 08, 2025
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