UNIFY

Material advances and processing technologies have led to the development of increasingly smaller electronic components. However, as these components shrink and get closer to each another, interference between them becomes a challenge. The EU-funded UNIFY project will tackle this problem by unifying two fundamental yet contradictory components – piezoelectrics and photovoltaics – into a single photoferroelectric material. Piezoelectrics convert kinetic to electrical energy, while photovoltaics optical into electrical energy. Replacing separate components with a single one could revolutionise the conversion of mechanical and solar energy into electrical energy for applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT) that require the design of connected devices into increasingly smaller products and with longer lifetimes.

Duration: 1 June 2022 - 31 May 2027