Low-Frequency MEMS Electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvester With Corona-Charged Vertical Electrets and Nonlinear Stoppers

Lu, Yingxian; Cottone, F.; Boisseau, S.; Galayko, Dimitri; Marty, F.; Basset, Philippe

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/660/1/012003

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The central part of the structure is a movable silicon mass connected to fixed ends by linear serpentine springs. On the two ends of the device, there are elastic stoppers consisting of elastic beams on the fixed ends and semicylindrical protru sions on the movable mass [17]. Along the two sides of the device are gapclosing interdigited combs forming a variable capacitance.…”

Section: Device Description and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A batch-fabricated electret-biased wideband MEMS vibration energy harvester with frequency-up conversion behavior powering a UHF wireless sensor node

O'Riordan

Cottone

et al. 2016

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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This paper reports a batchfabricated, lowfrequency and wideband MEMS electrostatic vibration energy harvester (eVEH), which implements coronacharged vertical electrets and nonlinear elastic stoppers. A numeric model is used to perform parametric study, where we observe a wideband bimodality resulting from nonlinearity. The nonlinear stoppers improve the bandwidth and induce a frequencyup feature at low frequencies. When the eVEH works with a bias of 45 V, the power reaches a maximum value of 6.6 μW at 428 Hz and 2.0 g rms , and is above 1 μW at 50 Hz. When the frequency drops below 60 Hz, a 'frequencyup' conversion behavior is observed with peaks of power at 34 Hz and 52 Hz. The −3 dB bandwidth is more than 60% of its central frequency, both including and excluding the hysteresis introduced by the nonlinear stoppers. We also perform experiments with wideband Gaussian noise. The device is eventually tested with an RF data transmission setup, where a communication node with an internal temperature sensor is powered. Every 2 min, a data transmission at 868 MHz is performed by the sensor node supplied by the eVEH, and received at a distance of up to 15 m.

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Section: Device Description and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A batch-fabricated electret-biased wideband MEMS vibration energy harvester with frequency-up conversion behavior powering a UHF wireless sensor node

O'Riordan

Cottone

et al. 2016

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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“…Three weeks after the electret charging, the built-in bias voltage provided by the electret was stabilized and measured at 21 V by using a half-wave voltage doubler, which is connected to the e-VEH while submitted to vibrations. 12 However, the transducer could withstand much higher bias voltages and the capability of the prototype is actually fully demonstrated by applying a DC bias of 25 V in addition to the internal bias of the electret. It is thus also possible to investigate the impact of the bias voltage between electrodes on the performance of the device.…”

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confidence: 99%

A nonlinear MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester for human-powered biomedical devices

Cottone

Boisseau

et al. 2015

Applied Physics Letters

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International audienceThis article proposes a silicon-based electrostatic kinetic energy harvester with an ultra-wide operating frequency bandwidth from 1 Hz to 160 Hz. This large bandwidth is obtained, thanks to a miniature tungsten ball impacting with a movable proof mass of silicon. The motion of the silicon proof mass is confined by nonlinear elastic stoppers on the fixed part standing against two protrusions of the proof mass. The electrostatic transducer is made of interdigited-combs with a gap-closing variable capacitance that includes vertical electrets obtained by corona discharge. Below 10 Hz, the e-KEH offers 30.6 nJ per mechanical oscillation at 2 grms, which makes it suitable for powering biomedical devices from human motion. Above 10 Hz and up to 162 Hz, the harvested power is more than 0.5 μW with a maximum of 4.5 μW at 160 Hz. The highest power of 6.6 μW is obtained without the ball at 432 Hz, in accordance with a power density of 142 μW/cm3. We also demonstrate the charging of a 47-μF capacitor to 3.5 V used to power a battery-less wireless temperature sensor node

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“…Moreover, an automatic switch 26 is needed to control the release and conservation of energy, to realize the manual operation of the mechanical switch as in the data transmission experiment. However, both the DC/DC voltage conversion interface and the automatic switch will bring additional power consumption.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The prototypes share a unified structure with a movable electrode connected to fixed ends through linear springs, holding a mini-ball in a cavity at the center, and implementing elastic stoppers. The KEHs are based on SOI wafers and a newly developed fabrication process that offers a fabrication resolution higher than that of the previously reported work 26 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A power supply module for autonomous portable electronics: ultralow-frequency MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester with a comb structure reducing air damping

Marty

Galayko³

et al. 2018

Microsyst Nanoeng

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A MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester (e-KEH) of about 1 cm 2 , working at ultralow frequency (1–20 Hz), without any supported additional mass on its mobile electrode, and working even without a vacuum environment is reported. The prototype is especially suitable for environments with abundant low frequency motions such as wearable electronics. The proposed e-KEH consists of a capacitor with a finger-teeth interdigited comb structure. This greatly reduces the air damping effect, and thus the capacitance variation remains important regardless of the presence of air. With the new design, the energy transduced per cycle of excitation is no less than 33 times higher than the classic design within 10–40 Hz/2 g peak , while is 85 times higher at 15 Hz/2 g peak . An enclosed miniature ball combined with non-linear stoppers enables the oscillation of the movable electrode through impact-based frequency up-conversion mechanism, which is also improved by the low air damping. Thanks to this new design, a higher efficiency than the classic gap-closing comb structure is obtained, as a larger range of working frequency (1–180 Hz) in air. A maximum energy conversion of 450 nJ/cycle is obtained with a bias voltage of 45 V and an acceleration of 11 Hz, 3 g peak . Working with a diode AC-DC rectifier, the proposed KEH is able to support up to 3 RFID communications within 16 s while operated at 11 Hz, 3 g peak .

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Low-Frequency MEMS Electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvester With Corona-Charged Vertical Electrets and Nonlinear Stoppers

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

A batch-fabricated electret-biased wideband MEMS vibration energy harvester with frequency-up conversion behavior powering a UHF wireless sensor node

A batch-fabricated electret-biased wideband MEMS vibration energy harvester with frequency-up conversion behavior powering a UHF wireless sensor node

A nonlinear MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester for human-powered biomedical devices

A power supply module for autonomous portable electronics: ultralow-frequency MEMS electrostatic kinetic energy harvester with a comb structure reducing air damping

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