Hybrid heterogeneous energy supply networks

Efficient energy supply, storage, and distribution are key technical challenges for design and operation of electronic systems. In particular, energy supply is the most scarce resource and constraint for mobile embedded systems where the supply lifetime, cost, weight, size, and portability are major concerns. With the advent of newer electrical energy supply and storage technologies, energy supplies with differing energy/power storage densities, cost, size, and recycling abilities are becoming available. Efficient system design requires an exact matching between the fluctuating load demands and the underlying energy resources. Combining the energy supplies in a hierarchical way creates a unique opportunity for efficient matching and variable load serving. Such a heterogeneous hybrid network of energy supply components could address a variety of power needs and serve a much broader range of system loads with a high efficiency. This paper presents a Hierarchial Architecture of Heterogenous Electrical Energy Supplies (HierArcHEES) that can be tuned to different load demands.