ENDOR - European Network for the Development of ORganic electric converters is a scientific network, which targets the whole process chain in the development of organic energy converters. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany and started in August 2014. The goal of the call was to enhance the cooperation especially in the Baltic Sea region. Current project partner are Fraunhofer ENAS, Technische Universität Chemnitz, ACREO, Norrköping and Linköping University from Sweden and Lublin University of Technology, Poland. The network is open to other partners, too.

Global demand for highly integrated systems is set to dramatically increase in the years to come. Such smart systems are the hardware basis for the internet of things as announced by a lot of current market studies. Smart Systems are self-sufficient intelligent technical systems or subsystems with advanced functionality, enabled by underlying micro- nano- and bio-systems and other components. They are able to sense, diagnose, describe, qualify and manage a given situation, their operation being further enhanced by their ability to mutually address, identify and work in consort with each other. They are highly reliable, often miniaturized, networked, predictive and energy autonomous.

This leads to a demand for availability of autonomous energy sources. The energy is needed for the acquisition, transformation, storage and transfer of information in self-sustained sensors networks. This autonomous energy sources for wireless sensor and sensor networks could be realized with electric converters which transforms environmental available energy into electric energy. However, efficient electric converters are rare especially in the field of organic devices which allows the realization of flexible, large scale and printable devices. There is a strong activity in the research of new materials but the complete process chain up to a commercial device could be only realized with interdisciplinary approaches.

Within the scientific network ENDOR, an interdisciplinary approach is targeted to provide components of the whole process chain for the development, fabrication and adjustment of organic electric converters with regard to consumers needs. System integration of respective devices and the involvement of industrial partners leads to a faster transition to market in the future.

The current project partners have strong competences including theoretical knowledge of physical effects and on nonlinear dynamics (Lublin University of Technology, Poland), material development and fabrication technologies (ACREO, Norrköping and Linköping University, Sweden) as well as system integration (Fraunhofer ENAS and Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany) which are essential for the design of devices.

Further information:

• endor-network.eu