OPPORTUNITY

Photovoltaics are one of the most popular source of green energy. However, one of their biggest downsides is that they are not aesthetically pleasing. While some technologies to print complex designs on solar cells were developed, these result in a large loss in efficiency (up to 50%) and, in all cases, the designs are directly encapsulated in the cell, making them non-removable and non-retrofittable. This technology is a polymer film on which complex shapes and designs could be printed. This film can then be laminated to existing photovoltaics. On the other hand, the film can also be easily removed, allowing an easy method to change the designs. In addition, fitting this film does not result in any significant loss of efficiency for the solar cells as decrease in the voltage, current and power generated by the photovoltaics is minimal.

TECHNOLOGY

A robust printing procedure was developed to print a range of dyes onto a polymer. These dyes were found not to impact the efficiency of the photovoltaics while potentially protecting it from UV irradiation, hence increasing the cell durability. Both the dye concentration and the composition of the polymer can be optimised to minimise the efficacy loss. Dye composition was also optimised to create a wide range of complex colours, hence improving strongly the versatility of designs realisable with this technology.

BENEFITS

• No need to intervene in the highly-optimised panel manufacture as the printed layer can potentially be applied afterwards including retrofit after installation.
• Minimal change in efficiency.
• Bright images, suitable for eye-catching context such as advertising.
• Bespoke and unique images are readily created.
• The layer can be removed and replaced.

Contact

Maria Lopalco

Technology Transfer Manager 

+44 (0) 777 3944559

Maria.lopalco@ei.ed.ac.uk 

OPPORTUNITY

With limitations in radio frequency spectrum and technologies increasingly representing a bottleneck for the expansion of wireless communication networks, OWC has attracted significant interest due to its potential advantages such as high data rate, and licence-free spectrum – both in terms of outdoor Free Space Optics (FSO) and indoor Visible Light Communication (VLC). The nature of OWC means that signals may vary significantly including to very low levels which would be below the threshold of conventional optical receivers (e.g. due to adverse weather conditions in FSO or blockage / dimming in VLC). There remains an unmet need for effective OWC receivers which can operate consistently across such an extended dynamic range.

TECHNOLOGY

Edinburgh researchers have developed a hybrid OWC receiver that is capable of transitioning from sensitivity levels of classical (e.g., thousand photons per bit) to near-quantum regimes (e.g., ten photons per bit). This is achieved by combining the capabilities of an array of single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPADs) and conventional photodetectors operating in linear mode (LPD), e.g., pin diode. Notably, the technology incorporates an approach to overcome the inherent operating gap that exists between SPAD array detectors and LPDs in high-speed applications, resulting in a system which provides reliable and smooth operation over a very large dynamic range of incident light intensity.

BENEFITS

• Adaptive sensitivity spanning large dynamic range
• Effective for high speed optical communication
• Continuous operation under low and variable signal levels

PUBLICATION

• Huang and M. Safari, “Hybrid SPAD/PD Receiver for Reliable Free-Space Optical Communication,” IEEE Open Journal of the Communications 10.1109/OJCOMS.2020.3023009.

Please note, the header image is purely illustrative.

Contact

Angus Stewart-Liddon
Edinburgh Innovations Ltd
The University of Edinburgh

+44 (0)131 650 9090
angus.stewart-liddon@ei.ed.ac.uk

OPPORTUNITY

Advances in reading, writing and editing DNA are helping to drive the synthetic biology industry. Beyond gene editing, CRISPR-Cas systems have been developed for targeted and programmable gene regulation. However, until now, the limitation of existing techniques in bacteria have prevented useful products to be made cost effectively and efficiently. This novel system is therefore a powerful and versatile synthetic biology tool for diverse research and industrial applications

TECHNOLOGY

Edinburgh researchers have designed, constructed and characterised a CRISPRa system based on a eukaryote-like activation mechanism in bacteria, which shows strong activity, superior dynamic range and good tolerance to a wide range of UAS locations (at least 40 bp).

The system allows a multi-gene expression profile screening platform engineering approach; only one pathway circuit needs to be constructed to generate multiple expression profiles, overcoming the bottle-neck of conventional library construction approaches.

BENEFITS

• Overcomes low dynamic ranges of activation output seen in existing CRISPRi and CRISPRa approaches to mediate gene regulation. Levels of gene activation >100-fold higher.
• System supports multi-input activation
• Device works in E.coli and other species of bacteria
• Device can activate multiple wild type σ⁵⁴-dependent promoters (P_pspA, P_hrpL, P_nifH and P_nifJ promoters)
• Tuneable gene expression; ability to scale the global expression level of all target genes proportionally by tuning the activator induction level
• Reusable metabolic pathway screening tool; multi-gene expression profile diversities stored on a universally applicable library.

PUBLICATION

• Engineered CRISPRa enables programmable eukaryote-like gene activation in bacteria. Liu et al, Nature Communications 2019, 10: 3693

Please note, the header image is purely illustrative. Source: Unsplash

Graphs: source