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PowerMEMS School Summary 08:40 - 09:25 09:25 - 10:10 10:30 - 11:15 11:15 - 12:00 13:30 - 14:15 14:15 - 15:00 15:20 - 16:05 16:05 - 16:50 |
Powering Wearable Technologies with Smart Textiles
Steve P Beeby Professor, University of Southampton, UK
Abstract
This lecture will introduce the topic of Smart Textiles in the context of wearable technologies and explain the motivation and challenges around powering such devices. Topic covered will include both energy harvesting and energy storage in textiles. Energy harvesting sources include kinetic (exploiting piezoelectric and triboelectric effects), thermal (thermoelectric) and light (textile photovoltaics) implemented in the textile. Energy storage will focus on textile supercapacitors. In particular, the lecture will highlight the constraints imposed on the various technologies by the physical properties of the textile. Textiles are highly flexible substrates, they can be woven, knitted or non-woven from a wide variety of yarns and fibres and typically have a rough, even 'fluffy' surface finish. Effectively integrating devices into a textile using active materials and considering factors such as processing temperature constraints makes this a very challenging topic, but one that has huge potential. 
About the Speaker
Professor Steve P Beeby obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton, UK, in 1998 on the subject of MEMS resonant sensors. He has been awarded two prestigious EPSRC Research Fellowships and is currently Head of the Smart Electronics and Materials research group. His research interests include energy harvesting, e-textiles, sensor systems, MEMS and active printed materials development. He leads the UK's Energy Harvesting Network and is a co-founder of Perpetuum Ltd, a University spin-out based upon vibration energy harvesting formed in 2004. He is currently leading 4 UK funded research projects and has previously been principal or co-investigator on a further 18 projects and coordinated 2 European Union research projects. He has given 24 invited talks and has over 250 publications and 3 patents. He has an h-Index of 45 with >12500 citations. |