Electronic devices are being deployed in an ever-increasing array of roles: monitoring, wearables, and IoT devices are just a small sampling of the varying ways that these devices are becoming part of every day life. However, with more devices comes a greater demand to power them all, which is becoming an increasingly critical issue.

For small or mobile devices, the primary energy source has usually involved batteries in some fashion, but these are also the components with the shortest lifespan and most frequent need for replacement. The need to replace (much less dispose of) batteries for an ever-growing array of devices is quickly becoming a concern, particularly in applications where accessing the devices themselves is expensive or impractical (such as a nanosatellite deployed into orbit).