Functional integration of photonic components for (vertical) urban farming

The project Food4Future (F4F) is a long-term initiative funded by the German government. The decade-long project aims to develop groundbreaking ideas for urban farming, along with the corresponding materials, technologies and processes. It considers various future scenarios such as the collapse of global supply chains ("no trade") and a severe shortage of arable land ("no land"). Different strategies for cultivating organisms such as crickets, jellyfish, halophytes and algae in an urban environment are being developed. New modular cultivation compartments have been constructed and built which can be used as stand-alone units or in a paternoster (continuous loop) system. An overview is given on the functional integration of SMD-LEDs, ranging from large planar flat units for halophyte cultivation to salt water-resistant UV-LED light sabers for algae cultivation and LEDs integrated directly into transparent composites.