Combined Forces

Major topics of the future

The LZE is specialized in the key economic and social topics of the future: energy saving and energy efficiency. Full of passion and ingenuity, the center is taking a twin­track approach from the start. On the one hand, it is developing new types of low-power electronics designed to minimize energy consumption. Examples include the sophisticated technology in the FitnessSHIRT and in other sport and fitness applications. Other scenarios involve equally clever solutions for energy­saving integrated circuits and energy­efficient data transmission in complex communication networks, as required, for example, in Industry 4.0. On the other hand, the LZE’s activities are also focused on coming up with pioneering power electronics for applications such as powertrain technology and the future energy supply – so that elec- trical energy can be converted and distributed efficiently and cost effectively. An example of this is “Wireless Power and Data Transfer in Systems with Fast-Moving Parts,” a project that hardly anyone knows better than Thomas Heckel. On a yellow-painted, industrial-use robotic gripper arm, Heckel points to a thick wiring harness that winds along the robot axis from the base all the way to the tip of the gripper arm. “It’s all pretty cramped, as you can see. Classic industrial robots are unable to turn flexibly in order to screw, weld, or record measurement values, because the wiring harness is in the way. That’s a drawback for manufacturing.” Furthermore, the cable harness weighs up to 40 kilograms, which causes the movement of the arm to be unbalanced. But how do you make the power supply cheaper, the data transmission more reliable, and the entire electronic system smaller and more compact? “Our vision is to get rid of the cables and to develop a functional inductive technique for energy and data transmission.” And this is precisely what the project manager and his team

Enthusiastic feedback from business and industry

At the LZE’s first­ever Technology Day (or LZE Tech Day for short), the enthusiasm shown by representatives from business and industry for the ideas was very palpable. For example, the product and innovation manager of a leading automotive supplier wanted “to get up to speed with the latest technology and intensify our current cooperation with Fraunhofer.” An industrial manager for innovation electronics judged the pilot projects presented a “very promising approaches to pursue new markets.” The excitement involved in realizing something new is also tangible in the two other LZE projects, such as “DC Backbone with Power-to-Gas Coupling” headed by Bernd Wunder. This project seeks to answer the following big questions: In the context of the energy transition and the growing scarcity of fossil fuels, how can we secure our energy requirements? And how can self-produced energy be stored cost effectively and on a major scale? Fraunhofer scientists are all too aware that lithium-ion batteries, which can hold only a limited amount of energy, are not the only solution. This is why they are collaborating with the Friedrich­Alexander University Erlangen­Nürnberg (FAU) to research coupling techniques that use a chemical carrier in liquid form. Known as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC), it securely binds the alternative energy carrier – hydrogen – like a sponge. By means of a fuel cell, the hydrogen can then be converted back into electrical energy. This method can be used to store excess energy in summer and then release it during the winter heating period. Or it can be used to balance out load fluctuations in the power grid. Last but not least, there is the “Energy­Independent Asset Tracking System for Logistics Applications” project, which focuses on extremely power­ saving electronics solutions that are needed to make the Internet of Things possible. Using the example of a high­performance logistics application, the team of researchers led by Dr. Heinrich Milosiu has developed a special low-maintenance positioning system, which allows goods in a warehouse or in outdoor areas to be located and tracked. The researchers show how spectacularly little power this radio-based solution consumes by means of a somewhat surprising demonstrator: a glowing red strawberry repurposed into a battery. Even such a weak and simple “strawberry battery” is capable of powering the wireless receiver. There- fore, the electronics used in the logistics tags – on which the data is stored – boasts very low power consumption: under ten microamperes in fact. The researchers are already working on further reducing power consumption down to just one microampere.

Short route from basic research to application

What the LZE defines as “research in new dimensions” is not just an integrated approach to rethinking joint electronic systems research, but is also about shortening the route from basic research to industrial applications. Ideas are already being developed for how to achieve this and what the next steps should be: research structures designed along the lines of think tanks, special investment and development teams, and new high-tech start-up business models. In any event, the bright minds at LZE have already developed technologies that – as Professor Albert Heuberger puts it – “will influence people’s lives today, tomorrow, and in the medium term”.