Manel Gasulla-Forner of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Autonomous sensors are wireless measurement systems used in multiple applications from healthcare to environmental monitoring. A large number of autonomous sensors still rely on primary batteries for their power supply. A proposed alternative, not exempt of challenges, is to harvest the energy from the surrounding environment (e.g. radiant, thermal, mechanical) or from intentional energy transmitters. This webinar first presents the basic building blocks of an energy harvester and design rules to take into account. Then, different types of energy transducers, conditioning circuits, and storage devices are introduced. Finally, some commercial energy harvesters are presented. Research carried out in this area by the presenter’s group will also be embedded and highlighted.

Biography:

Manuel Gasulla-Forner was born in Vinaròs, Spain, on May 26, 1967. He received the Engineer (MEng) and Doctor Engineer (PhD) degrees in Telecommunications from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC BarcelonaTech), Barcelona, in 1992 and 1999, respectively. Since 1993 he has been with the UPC, where he is an associate professor, engaged in teaching on Analog and Power Electronics and Electronic Instrumentation. In 2001-2002 he was a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. His research interests include capacitive sensors, direct sensor-to-microcontroller interfaces, and energy harvesting and wireless power transfer circuits for autonomous sensors. Presently, he leads the research group e-CAT (Electronic Transducers and Interfaces), which focuses on new electronic circuits applied to transducers for signal and power processing with the aim of developing energy-autonomous smart sensors. He is co-author of more than 70 papers in journals and conferences, seven Spanish patents, several chapters in books and the book Powering Autonomous Sensors (Springer, 2011). ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0364-6806

Email:

Address:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, c/Esteve Terradas, 7, Castelldefels, Spain, 08860