Ilika joins wireless sensor demonstration project

Solid-state battery technology company Ilika has entered into a demonstration project to deploy its ‘Stereaxâ M250’ batteries to power an autonomous wireless sensor for environmental sensing and asset tracking, it announced on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm said it would receive €0.26m, which would cover all its costs from Horizon 2020, which is the European Commission's research and innovation programme.

In the project, Ilika would collaborate with four commercial partners - Lightricity on PV cells, e-peas on power management, and Microdul and Penta on sensors, as well as three research organisations - IMEC, CERTH and Zurich University.

The project objective was to use a combination of Stereaxâ batteries and photovoltaic cells to power a smart sensing card with multi-sensing capabilities covering imaging, carbon dioxide sensing and temperature measurement.

In addition, the card would be designed with security features to ensure low vulnerability, user and device authentication, intrusion prevention and detection and overall enhanced cyber-secure operation.

The device would be designed for deployment in smart cities for air quality management, smart homes for indoor air quality and comfort, smart work places for indoor comfort, occupancy and productivity, and industrial environments for health and safety monitoring during inspection activities.

“This is a great opportunity for Ilika to work with other commercial organisations from the internet-of-things ecosystem in Europe with a view to bringing its Stereax M250 batteries to market,” said chief executive officer Graeme Purdy.

“The sensor applications have been carefully selected to demonstrate the lower total cost of ownership achievable by using a combination of energy harvesting from a photovoltaic cell in conjunction with a Stereaxâ M250 battery.”