NEWS SELF-POWERED ELECTRONICS
Nano-thin piezoelectrics advance
self-powered electronics
NEW MATERIAL COULD BE USED TO DEVELOP NEW SELF-POWERED, WEARABLE
ELECTRONICS DEVICES. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
According to an Australian research team, a new
type of ultra-efficient, nano-thin material could
advance self-powered electronics, wearable
technologies and even deliver pacemakers
powered by heart beats.
Flexible and printable, the piezoelectric
material, which can convert mechanical pressure
into electrical energy, has been developed by a
team of scientists led by RMIT University.
Said to be 100,000 times thinner than a
human hair and 800% more efficient than other
piezoelectrics based on similar non-toxic materials,
according to researchers it can be easily fabricated
through a cost-effective and commercially scalable
method, using liquid metals.
Lead researcher Dr Nasir Mahmood said the
material was a major step towards realising the
full potential of motion-driven, energy-harvesting
devices.
“Until now, the best performing nano-thin
piezoelectrics have been based on lead, a toxic
material that is not suitable for biomedical use,”
Mahmood, a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow
at RMIT, said. “Our new material is based on
non-toxic zinc oxide, which is also lightweight and
compatible with silicon, making it easy to integrate
into current electronics.
“It’s so efficient that all you need is a single
1.1 nanometre layer of our material to produce
all the energy required for a fully self-powering
nanodevice.”
The material is produced using a liquid metal
printing approach, pioneered at RMIT, in which
Zinc oxide is first heated until it becomes liquid.
This liquid metal, once exposed to oxygen, forms
a nano-thin layer on top - like the skin on heated
milk when it cools. The metal is then rolled over
a surface, to print off nano-thin sheets of the zinc
oxide “skin”.
The technique can rapidly produce large-scale
sheets of the material and is compatible with any
manufacturing process, including roll-to-roll (R2R)
processing.
The material’s potential biomedical
applications include internal biosensors and selfpowering
biotechnologies, such as devices that
convert blood pressure into a power source for
pacemakers.
The nano-thin piezoelectrics could also be used
in the development of smart oscillation sensors
to detect faults in infrastructure like buildings and
bridges, especially in earthquake-prone regions.
Development Kit provides easy
access to AI and ML
Nordic Semiconductor’s partnership with Edge Impulse, a provider of ‘TinyML’
tools designed to run on resource constrained semiconductor devices, has enabled its
nRF52 and nRF53 Series Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) chips to now benefit from easy-to-use AI and
machine learning features as standard.
“What AI and ML on resource-constrained chips does – which Nordic will now collectively refer
to as TinyML – is take the application potential of wireless IoT technologies such as Bluetooth to a
whole new level in terms of environmental awareness and autonomous decision making,” said Kjetil
Holstad, Nordic’s Director of Product Management.
“Our partnership with Edge Impulse will remove all the complexity and previous technological
barriers-to-entry for our customers wishing to add TinyML features to their Bluetooth applications,”
continued Holstad. “In fact using Edge Impulse tools, Nordic customers could be up and running
TinyML on their applications within an afternoon. And at an ultra-low power consumption level that
still supports extended battery operation, even from small batteries.”
Prime engineering areas for TinyML include audio and vibration where it can be used to establish
normal operating patterns and rapidly detect anomalies.
Editor Neil Tyler
neil.tyler@markallengroup.com
Contributing Chris Edwards, Charlotte Hathway,
Editors John Walko
editor@newelectronics.co.uk
Art Editor Chris Charles
chris.charles@markallengroup.com
Illustrator Phil Holmes
Sales Manager James Creber
james.creber@markallengroup.com
Publisher Peter Ring
peter.ring@markallengroup.com
Managing Jon Benson
Director jon.benson@markallengroup.com
Production Nicki McKenna
Manager nicki.mckenna@markallengroup.com
New Electronics editorial advisory panel
Trevor Cross, chief technology officer, Teledyne e2v
Pete Leonard, electronics design manager, Renishaw
Pete Lomas, director of engineering, Norcott Technologies
Neil Riddiford, principal electronics engineer, Cambridge
Consultants
Adam Taylor, embedded systems consultant
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