1

PROJECT REPORT
ON
“ENERGY SCAVENGING FROM
VIBRATIONS”

Submitted for partial fulfillment of the award of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
DEGREE

SESSION 2010-11

In

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

By

1. VIPUL KUMAR 3.BHRAMIT AGARWAL

2. RAHUL SHARMA

Under the guidance of:-

Mrs. Mona Sharma
Mr. Gulshan Dubey
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IMS ENGINEERING COLLEGE,

GHAZIABAD
(U.P. Technical University, Lucknow (U.P.)
CERTIFICATE
We hereby declare that the work being presented in this report entitled
“Energy Scavenging from Vibrations” is an authentic record of our own
work carried out under the supervision of Mrs. Mona Sharma.

The matter embodied in this report has not been submitted by us for the
award of any other degree.

DATED NAME OF STUDENTS

VIPUL KUMAR
RAHUL SHARMA
BHRAMIT AGARWAL
(Electrical and Electronics )

This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidates is correct
to the best my knowledge

Mrs. Annu Govind Mrs. Mona Sharma

(H.O.D.) (SUPERVISOR)
Asst. Professor
Date- (Electrical & Electronics)

Date-
 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The successful completion of any project and also the report is the
endeavor of all the people who support, help and faster doer of the process,
without which the project remains a daunting player whose might is
difficult to comprehend. I would like to thank the Department of Electrical
and Electronics Engg. providing a path to explore my knowledge.
We would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Mrs. Annu
Govind, HOD EN Department for giving me full support and guidance in
completing the project.
Moreover we wish to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks
and gratitude to Mrs. Mona Sharma (Asst. professor) from The department
of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Mr. Gulshan Dubey(Asst.
Professor) from the Electronics and Communication Engineering Dept.,
who is so generous in sharing his ideas and time, with extend beyond the
duty of his department.

VIPUL KUMAR

RAHUL SHARMA

BHRAMIT AGARWAL
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ABSTRACT
The process of acquiring the energy surrounding a system and converting it
into usable electrical energy is termed as power harvesting ,With
piezoelectric materials ,it is possible to harvest from vibrating system .It
has been proven that micro to mill watts of power can be generated from
vibrating systems .
The project targets the transformation of mechanical vibration into
electrical energy using piezoelectric material .The modeling and design of
MEMS –scale piezoelectric based vibration energy harvester are presented.
The work is motivated by the need for pervasive and limitless power for
wireless sensor nodes. In some mining application, ex: water jet drilling;
large high frequency vibration may be present. If successfully harvested
this energy could be used to eliminate batteries in wireless sensors .This
project presents a model of a piezoelectric transducer; a mechanical
Vibration spectrum, the simulation of the model and prototype of power
scavenging circuit.
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Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Distributed Wireless Sensor Network
1.2 Power generation Sources
2. Objective
2.1 Background
2.2 Mechanical Vibrating System Design and Construction
2.3 Battery Charging Circuitry
3. Methodology
3.1 Vibration Energy Harvesting
3.2 Vibration Powered Generator
3.2.1 Electrostatic
3.2.2 Electromagnetic
3.2.3 Piezoelectric
3.3 Piezoelectric Generator Power
3.4 Improving Power output
3.5 Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Model
 6

3.6 The Piezoelectric Effect

3.7 Discovery of Piezoelectric Effect
3.8 Mathematical Description
3.9 Hooke’s Law
3.10 Materials
3.10.1 Naturally Occurring
3.10.2 Man made
4. Details of project work
4.1 Background
4.2 Principle Of operation
4.3 Micro Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS)
4.3.1 Materials for MEMS manufacturing
4.3.1.1 Silicon
4.3.1.2 Polymer
4.3.1.3 Metals
4.3.2 MEMS manufacturing Tech.
4.3.2.1 Bulk Micro mining
4.3.2.2 Surface Micro mining
4.3.2.3 HAR Silicon Micro mining
4.3.3 Application
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4.4 Piezo-Electric Sensors

4.4.1 Principle of Operation
4.4.2 Electrical Properties
4.4.3 Sensor Design
4.4.4 Sensing Material
4.5 Piezoelectric Buzzer
4.6 Super Capacitor
4.7 Zener Diode
4.8 Full Wave Rectifier
4.9 Charging Circuit
4.10 Micro Power Module
5. Result and discussion
5.1 The Future of Power Harvesting
5.2 Current Scenario
5.3 Scope
5.4 Energy Harvesting Application
6. Conclusion
6.1 Contribution from Project
6.2 Recommendation
7. References
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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1. Basic construction of vibration scavenger ………………………….15

2. Types of vibration power generation………………………………..17
3. Schematic of an electrostatic scavenger with electrets……………...18
4. Schematic of electromagnetic scavenger ……………………………18
5. Schematic of piezoelectric scavenger……………………………
6. Piezo electric effect 22
7. Inverse piezo electric effect 23
8. Piezoelectricity 33
9. Schematic symbol and electronic model of piezo sensor 35
10. Frequency response of piezo electric sensor 36
11. Spectrum of piezo device 38
12.Basic capacitor construction 39
13. Construction of different types of capacitor 40
14. EDLC charge storage mechanism 41
15. Typical configuration of EDLC cell 42
16. Zener diode 43
 10

17. Transfer characteristics of zener 44

18. Full wave register 45
19. Working of diode bridge 46
20. Energy harvesting circuit 46
21. Charging circuit 47
22. Micro power module 48
23. Time vs. voltage curve 48
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LIST OF SYMBOLS
• Cp is the elastic constant of the piezo electric cermic.
• K31 is the piezo electric coupling coefficient.
• W is the frequency of driving vibrations.
• Wn the resonance frequency of generator.
• tc is the thickness of one layer of of the piezo electric ceramic.
• K2 is a geometric constant that relates average piezo electric material
strain.
• € is dielectric constant of piezo electric material.
• R is the load resistance.
• V is the voltage across load resistance.
• Cb is the capicatance of piezoelectric bimorph.
• D is the electrical charge density displacement.
• ε is permittivity .
• E is the electric field strength.
• S is strain, s is stiffness and T is stress.
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Chapter-1
Introduction

Vibration powered electronic devices have been applied in several

commercial project, Such as kinetic wristwatches, smart tennis racquet and
smart sport shoes. In recent years, the rapid development of micro sensors
for various applications including remote environmental monitoring,
automotive sensors and biomedical sensors require a miniaturized
integrated distributed power supply to reduce potential problems. In many
of these micro sensors, power supplies from chemical energy sources are
undesirable due to limited shelf life and replacement accessibility. To solve
this power supply problem, the conversion of electrical energy from a
vibrating source to a renewable storage device, Such as rechargeable
batteries or super capacitors can be a potential and promising alternative
solution. The electrical energy stored in the storage device can be readily
used for low-power ICs or integrated distributed micro sensors.

1.1 Distributed Wireless Sensor Network

Distributed wireless micro sensor network have been described as a system
of ubiquitous, low cost, self organizing agent (or nodes) that work in a
collaborative manner to solve complex problem. A node can be defined as
“A single physical device consisting of as sensor, a transceiver, and
supporting electronics, and which is connected to a larger wireless
network. Advances in low power DSP’s (Digital Signal Processors) and
trends in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) have reduced power
requirement for the individual nodes. Power consumption of tens to
hundreds of Micro watts is predicted. This lowered power requirement has
made self powered sensors nodes a possibility. Power solution envisioned
 13

for these self powered nodes will convert ambient energy into usable
electrical energy.

1.2 Power Generation Sources

Ambient energy can be defined as energy that is not stored explicitly, but
is available in the device surroundings. Various sources of ambient energy
have been explored, and are discussed in following section. These sources
have the advantages that they are essentially free, their conversion
mechanism are clean (there is no pollution associated with the conversion
process), and the source has a potentially infinite lifespan. Source types
and harvesting technologies include solar, thermoelectric, acoustic energy
harvesting, the axial-flow micro-turbine generator, and mechanical
vibration energy harvesting. Solar energy harvesting is the most common
mechanism of energy harvesting. Solar panels consist of photovoltaic cells
and can generate up to 15, 000 μW/cm2 indirect sunlight. However, their
performance rapidly reduces to 150 μW/Cm2 on a cloudy day.
Thermoelectric energy harvesting devices generate electricity when placed
in a temperature gradient. This is the same principle (the Seebeck effect)
upon which a thermocouple works. Some published results include: 2.2
μW/cm2 is generated for Temperature difference = 5 K and 8.6 μW/cm2
for Temperature difference = 10 K.

The final mechanism of energy harvesting to be discussed, and the focus of

the current research, is mechanical vibration energy harvesting. Low-level
mechanical vibrations occur pervasively in the environment and high
levels occur on machinery and vehicles (e.g., an automobile or
aircraft).These devices can be divided into two groups :

1. Non-resonant Energy Harvester

2. Resonant Energy harvester
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These devices are most effective in different vibration regimes and are thus
not competing, but rather complimentary configurations. The non-resonant
energy harvester is more efficient where the input contains very low
frequency (< 10 Hz), irregular vibrations with amplitudes larger than the
device critical dimensions. Irregular vibrations are defined as inconsistent
or discontinuous motions (such as the movements of a body).

This configuration finds application in human movement energy

harvesters (for example with wearable computing applications).
On the other hand, the resonant energy harvester finds application where
the input vibrations are regular, frequencies are higher (> 100 Hz), and the
input vibration amplitude is smaller than the device critical dimensions.
Regular vibrations are continuous with stable and well defined vibration
spectra, such as vibrations generated by an unbalanced machine. Resonant
energy harvesters are the focus of the current Project.
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Chapter-2
Objective

2.1 Background:
Energy harvesting or the process of acquiring energy from the surrounding
environment has been a continuous human endeavor throughout history,
e.g. the use of watermills in ancient Greece, and of sailboats by
Phoenicians and Egyptians, circa 4000 B.C. These days there is an
increasing interest to harvest energy at a much smaller scale, i.e. energy
scavenging. For applications such as the ones found in many embedded
systems the power requirements are often small (less than 100 mW).
Piezoelectric materials are great candidates for energy scavenging using
vibrations from the surrounding environment, e.g. vibrations generated by
the traffic through bridges, or the motions of people as they walk.
Piezoelectric materials become electrically polarized when subjected to
mechanical strain and the degree of polarization is proportional to the
applied strain.
The project objective is to design a prototype of energy harvesting system
using piezoelectric effect. The design of the prototype can be broke into
following steps:-
1. The design and construction of a mechanical vibrating system
2. The experimental measurements, data acquisition and analysis
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3. The use of an energy harvesting circuitry to charge a battery.

2.2 Mechanical vibrating system design and construction

The design component of this project is the construction of a vibrating

system that will be used with experiments on energy harvesting using a
piezo buzzer. Design a test station that generates vibrations of different
amplitudes and frequencies. A gear train needs to be designed to for the
vibrating system to match as closely as possible the given resonant
frequency of a piezo buzzer.

2.3 Battery charging circuitry

Chapter-3
 17

Methodology

3.1 Vibration Energy harvesting

In order to able to convert Vibration energy into electrical energy there has
to be a movement between the mechanical parts of the generator.
The vibrations consist of travelling waves and it is often not possible to
find a relative movement within the reach of a small generator.
The most common approach to couple the mechanical movement to the
generator is to an inertial system, having a spring connected to the
Vibrating frame and a mass suspended by the spring (Fig 1).
This way, the motion of the mass with respect to the frame can be
converted to power by the electromechanical generator. The generated
power will be delivered to an external load.

There are three different kinds of generators that can be used:

1. Electrostatic
2. Electromagnetic
3. Piezoelectric
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Fig 1: Basic construction of a vibration scavenger

Below is an explanation of how the different generators work.

3.2 Vibration Powered generators

1. Electrostatic
 19

2. Electromagnetic
3. Piezoelectric

Fig 2: Types of Vibration power generator

3.2.1. Electrostatic

An electrostatic generator (Fig 3) consists of a variable capacitor with fin

type plates and an electret1. The fins of one side of the capacitor are
attached to a suspended proof mass and move with vibrations while the
other side of the capacitor is fixed to the glass wafer. The electrets
provides a polarization voltage, which is needed to initially
Charge the electrodes.
 20

Fig 3: schematic of an electrostatic scavenger with electrets

The capacitor has a value that changes as a function of displacement

as the device resonates with the vibration, the total electrical energy Stored
in the capacitor increases. This redistribution of charge makes a current
flow through the load, given by:

I = dQ/dt = d(C(z)V)/dt

As the plates move further apart, capacitance increases, causing an increase

in current. This is harvested, stored, and as the plates contract again, the
cycle is repeated. One of the main advantages of electrostatic energy
converters is that their technology is compatible with CMOS technology.
However, the Generators need an advanced control system in order to
regulate the power switches. Also, high voltages can be generated which
may harm the switches or the microelectronics.

3.2.2. Electromagnetic

The electromagnetic working principle is based on the relative motion

of a magnetic mass and a coil.
 21

Fig 4 : Schematic Of electromagnetic scavenger

An electro-motive force (e.m.f.) is induced across a coil if the magnetic

flux coupled to the inductor changes as a function of time. The e.m.f. is
proportional to the coil’s total number of turns, the magnetic field density
and the velocity of the motion. The relationship between the e.m.f. and the
displacement of the mass depends on the design of the system.
Electromagnetic conversion has some advantages and disadvantages
compared to electrostatic conversion. Its advantages are that it doesn’t
need an external voltage source or electret, nor does it need controlling or
sensing electronics to manage the power switches. The only thing needed
to regulate the e.m.f. is a diode bridge. Its disadvantages, on the other
hand, are that its fabrication techniques are not compatible with CMOS
technology and the converters generate relatively low e.m.f.

3.3.3.Piezoelectric

This type of scavenger makes use of the fact that a piezoelectric material
generates an electric field when it is stressed mechanically.This electric
field is related to stress by the materials “g” coefficients, whose units are
[V/m]/[ N/m2].

g = Open circuit electric field/ applied mechanical stress

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Output voltage is calculated by multiplying the electric field by the

thickness of ceramic between electrodes. The piezoelectric layer is
polarized by applying a field through the electro- -des after heating it up to
150°C. It is necessary to polarize both sides at once since heating one side
will result in heating of the other side. It is not possible to connect the
piezoceramic element directly between the mass and the frame because it
is a stiff material and would result in having a generator with a very high
resonance frequency. That’s why the generator is often mounted on a long
thin cantilever beam: as the beam/mass structure oscillates, the
piezoelectric layer adhered to the surface of the beam deforms and causes a
charge to be displaced across the capacitor electrodes positioned on the top
and bottom surfaces of the piezoelectric elements. A voltage then appears
across the capacitor and a current will flow through the load. Roundy and
colleagues have shown that piezoelectric scavengers produce highest level
of practical power output.

Fig 5: schematic Of piezoelectric scavenger

3.3 Piezoelectric Generator Power

When a resistor is connected across the device electrodes, the relationship
for power output as a function of input vibration amplitude and frequency
is:
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 24

Power output is maximized when the driving frequency is operating at the

resonance frequency of the generator. That frequency depends on the
stiffness and the mass of the beam according to:

3.4 Improving power Output

There are three basic approaches to improving power output from a
Piezoelectric cantilever scavenger:-

The first is to modify the cantilever geometry to produce more strain. This
can be accomplished by making a cantilever beam which is longer and
narrower or by increasing the proof mass. But because of the brittle nature
of piezoelectric ceramics, too much strain will damage them.
Second approach is to increase the width/thickness of the piezoelectric
material, but this stiffens the beam, reducing overall strain and increasing
resonant frequency. Most biomedical applications target frequencies in the
10s of Hz, so a low resonant frequency is essential.
 25

The third approach seems to be the most viable: tuning the resonant
frequency of the device to match the frequency of excitation. In cases
where the excitation frequency changes (which is true in most practical
applications— particularly biomedical), this calls for either wide-
bandwidth designs which are optimized for a wider range of frequencies or
adaptive self-tuning mechanisms which can detect excitation frequencies
and adjust the cantilever’s resonant frequency to match. The only practical
wide-bandwidth design approach involves multiple cantilevers with
different resonant frequencies. The obvious problem with this approach is
that it increases size and decreases the power-to-volume ratio. Since size is
of utmost importance in a biomedical application, we are left with adaptive
Self tuning. There are two methods of self tuning, which Roundy calls
“active” and “passive”. Active tuning mechanisms run continuously to
match the cantilever’s resonant frequency to the excitation frequency.
Electronic springs are an example. Passive tuning mechanisms tune the
cantilever and then turn off. In other words, no power is required to
maintain the desired resonant frequency once it has been set. An example
would be a variable/moveable proof mass or a mechanism that adjusts the
length of the beam. It has been mathematically shown that active tuning
mechanisms will never be practical because the power gains they provide
will never be enough to offset the power they require to operate .
Therefore, passive tuning is the only viable approach.

3.5 Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Model

This project represent the design and fabrication of piezoelectric power

generator to be used as a power source for MEMS(Micro Electrical
Mechanical Systems).The system scavenges environmental vibrations and
convert it into electrical power through a piezoelectric transduction.
Coupled electromechanical models are developed for design and
performance prediction of a micro-scale piezoelectric energy harvester and
for validation to macro-scale harvester experiments.
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3.6 The Piezoelectric Effect

Piezoelectricity is the ability of certain materials to produce a voltage when

subjected to a mechanical stress .When these materials are subjected to a
mechanical force, their crystal become electrically polarized. The polarities
for the tensile and compressive forces are opposite and the polarity is
proportional to the applied force.
The converse relationship is also true: When the crystalline material is
subjected to an electric field it lengthens or shortens according to the
polarity of the electric field. The latter is known as the inverse
piezoelectric effect. Materials with crystals that have a dipole are termed
piezoelectric materials.

Fig 6 : Piezoelectric Effect

Fig 7 : Inverse Piezoelectric Effect

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3.7 Discovery of Piezoelectric Effect

The effect known as piezoelectricity was Discovered by brothers Pierre

and Jacques Curie when they were 21 and 24 years old in 1880. Pierre
Curie (15 May 1859 – 19 April1906) was a French physicist who received
a Nobel prize in Physics in 1903. Piezoelectric effect can be understood as
the linear electro mechnical interaction between the mechanical and the
electrical state in crystalline materials with no inversion symmetry.
Piezoelectricity is found in useful applications such as the production and
detection of sound, generation of high voltages, electronic frequency
generation, microbalances, and ultrafine focusing of optical assemblies. It
is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with
atomic resolution.

3.8 Mathematical Description

 28

Piezoelectricity is the combined effect of the electrical behavior of the

material

Where D is the electrical charge density displacement, ε is permittivity and

E is the electric field strength.

3.9 Hooke’s Law

Where S is strain, s is stiffness and T is stress.

These may be combined into so called coupled equations, of which the

strain charge form is

where [d] is the matrix for the direct piezoelectric effect and [dt] is the
matrix for the converse piezoelectric effect. The superscript E indicates a
zero, or constant, electric field; the superscript T indicates a zero, or
constant, stress field; and the subscript t stands for transposition of a
matrix.

3.10 Materials
Many material both natural and man made , Exhibit piezoelectricity
 29

3.10.1 Naturally-occurring crystals

• Berlinite (AlPO4), a rare phosphate mineral that is structurally
identical to quartz
• Cane sugar
• Quartz
• Rochelle salt
• Topaz
• Tourmaline-group minerals

3.10.2 Man-made crystals

• Gallium orthophosphate (GaPO4), a quartz analogic crystal
• Langasite (La3Ga5SiO14), a quartz analogic crystal

Chapter-4
Details of Project report work

4.1 Background
 30

Energy harvesting or the process of acquiring energy from the surrounding

environment has been a continuous human endeavor throughout history,
e.g. the use of watermills in ancient Greece, and of sailboats by
Phoenicians and Egyptians, circa 4000 B.C. These days there is an
increasing interest to harvest energy at a much smaller scale, i.e. energy
scavenging. For applications such as the ones found in many embedded
systems the power requirements are often small (less than 100 mW).
Piezoelectric materials are great candidates for energy scavenging using
vibrations from the surrounding environment, e.g. vibrations generated by
the traffic through bridges, or the motions of people as they walk.
Piezoelectric materials become electrically polarized when subjected to
mechanical strain and the degree of polarization is proportional to the
applied strain.

4.2 Project Overview and Design Content

The design process can be broke into following steps:-
1. The design and construction of a mechanical vibrating system.
2. The experimental measurements.
3. The use of an energy harvesting circuitry to charge a battery.
4.2 Principle of Operation
Any vibration based energy harvester can be primarily divided into three
parts. The first part consists of the power generator module which converts
the ambient mechanical energy into an electrical equivalent energy. The
second part is the power processor module that effectively processes the
converted energy into a form of DC power. The final module is the power
storage architecture which stores the generated power into a battery or a
capacitor efficiently for application specific end use. The fundamental
concept for piezoelectric energy harvesting involves a piezoelectric layer
attached to a vibrating mechanical structure that converts the strain energy
into induced electric charge. Joule Thief TM is made up of a composite
beam that consists of a cantilever shim with an attached piezoelectric layer
 31

and a proof mass at its end. The device when directly attached to a
vibrating surface, places the whole structure in an accelerating frame of
reference. The proof mass essentially converts the input base acceleration
into an effective inertial force at the tip that deflects the beam, thereby
inducing mechanical strain in the piezoelectric layer. This strain produces
an effective voltage in the layer that is converted into usable power with
the help of a power processor.
The cantilever configuration is chosen over other designs such as circular
plate/membrane configurations or fixed-fixed plate/beam designs. The
primary reason for this choice is based on the goal to maximize the
stress/strain in the piezoelectric layer for a given fixed vibration input.
Since the ambient surroundings have a definite amount of energy in
amplitude and frequencies, the fundamental optimization in the mechanical
device would be to generate maximum power for a given source.
Consequently, the need to maximize the strain the piezoelectric layer is
essential as the voltage generated in the piezoceramic is proportional to the
strain induced.
AdaptivEnergy’s Joule-Thief™ achieves exactly the same requirement
using their core RLP® technology. AdaptivEnergy has spent years of
research in developing a lamination technique for producing stress biased
piezoelectric composites in various sizes and shapes. The stress biasing
technique effectively places the piezoceramic element in the device under
compression. Therefore, the operation range and strain limits for failure for
the piezoelectric layer is extended further. Consequently, the device
exceeds in performance and reliability resulting in a robust product that
can survive harsh environments for extended periods of time. This unique
feature of RLP® products provides a great advantage over other systems.

4.3 Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

Micro Electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) (also written as micro-electro-
mechanical, MicroElectroMechanical or microelectronic and
microelectromechanical systems) is the technology of very small
 32

mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into

nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nanotechnology. MEMS are
also referred to as micromachines (in Japan), or Micro Systems
Technology - MST (in Europe).MEMS are separate and distinct from the
hypothetical vision of molecular nanotechnology or molecular electronics.
MEMS are made up of components between 1 to 100 micrometers in size
(i.e. 0.001 to 0.1 mm) and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20
micrometers (20 millionths of a metre) to a millimeter. They usually
consist of a central unit that processes data, the microprocessor and several
components that interact with the outside such as micro sensors. At these
size scales, the standard constructs of classical physics are not always
useful. Because of the large surface area to volume ratio of MEMS, surface
effects such as electrostatics and wetting dominate volume effects such as
inertia or thermal mass.

4.3.1 Materials for MEMS manufacturing

4.3.1.1 Silicon
Silicon is the material used to create most integrated circuits used in
consumer electronics in the modern world. The economies of scale, ready
availability of cheap high-quality materials and ability to incorporate
electronic functionality make silicon attractive for a wide variety of
MEMS applications. Silicon also has significant advantages engendered
through its material properties. In single crystal form, silicon is an almost
perfect Hookean material, meaning that when it is flexed there is virtually
no hysteresis and hence almost no energy dissipation. As well as making
for highly repeatable motion, this also makes silicon very reliable as it
suffers very little fatigue and can have service lifetimes in the range of
billions to trillions of cycles without breaking. The basic techniques for
producing all silicon based MEMS devices are deposition of material
layers, patterning of these layers by photolithography and then etching to
produce the required shapes.
4.3.1.2 Polymers
 33

Even though the electronics industry provides an economy of scale for the
silicon industry, crystalline silicon is still a complex and relatively
expensive material to produce. Polymers on the other hand can be
produced in huge volumes, with a great variety of material characteristics.
MEMS devices can be made from polymers by processes such as injection
molding, embossing or stereo lithography and are especially well suited to
micro fluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridges.
4.3.1.3 Metals
Metals can also be used to create MEMS elements. While metals do not
have some of the advantages displayed by silicon in terms of mechanical
properties, when used within their limitations, metals can exhibit very high
degrees of reliability.
Metals can be deposited by electroplating, evaporation, and sputtering
processes.Commonly used metals include gold, nickel, aluminum, copper,
chromium, titanium, tungsten, platinum, and silver.

4.3.2 MEMS manufacturing Technologies

4.3.2.1 Bulk micromachining

Bulk micromachining is the oldest paradigm of silicon based MEMS. The
whole thickness of a silicon wafer is used for building the micro-
mechanical structures. Silicon is machined using various etching
processes. Anodic bonding of glass plates or additional silicon wafers is
used for adding features in the third dimension and for hermetic
encapsulation. Bulk micromachining has been essential in enabling high
performance pressure sensors and accelerometers that have changed the
shape of the sensor industry in the 80's and 90's.

4.3.2.2 Surface micromachining

 34

Surface micromachining uses layers deposited on the surface of a substrate

as the structural materials, rather than using the substrate itself. Surface
micromachining was created in the late 1980s to render micromachining of
silicon more compatible with planar integrated circuit technology, with the
goal of combining MEMS and integrated circuits on the same silicon
wafer. The original surface micromachining concept was based on thin
polycrystalline silicon layers patterned as movable mechanical structures
and released by sacrificial etching of the underlying oxide layer.
Interdigital comb electrodes were used to produce in-plane forces and to
detect in-plane movement capacitively. This MEMS paradigm has enabled
the manufacturing of low cost accelerometers for e.g. automotive air-bag
systems and other applications where low performance and/or high g-
ranges are sufficient. Analog Devices have pioneered the industrialization
of surface micromachining and have realized the co-integration of MEMS
and integrated circuits.

4.3.2.3 High aspect ratio (HAR) silicon micromachining

Both bulk and surface silicon micromachining are used in the industrial
production of sensors, ink-jet nozzles, and other devices. But in many
cases the distinction between these two has diminished. A new etching
technology, deep reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine
good performance typical of bulk micromachining with comb structures
and in-plane operation typical of surface micromachining. While it is
common in surface micromachining to have structural layer thickness in
the range of 2 µm, in HAR silicon micromachining the thickness can be
from 10 to 100 µm. The materials commonly used in HAR silicon
micromachining are thick polycrystalline silicon, known as epi-poly, and
bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers although processes for bulk
silicon wafer also have been created (SCREAM). Bonding a second wafer
by glass frit bonding, anodic bonding or alloy bonding is used to protect
the MEMS structures. Integrated circuits are typically not combined with
HAR silicon micromachining. The consensus of the industry at the
 35

moment seems to be that the flexibility and reduced process complexity

obtained by having the two functions separated far outweighs the small
penalty in packaging. A comparison of different high-aspect-ratio
microstructure technologies can be found in the HARMST article.

4.3.3 Applications
In one viewpoint MEMS application is categorized by type of use.
Sensor
Actuator
Structure
In another view point MEMS applications are categorized by the field of
application (commercial applications include):
Inkjet printers, which use piezoelectric or thermal bubble ejection to
deposit ink on paper.
Accelerometers in modern cars for a large number of purposes including
airbag deployment in collisions.
Accelerometers in consumer electronics devices such as game controllers
(Nintendo Wii), personal media players / cell phones (Apple iPhone,
various Nokia mobile phone models, various HTC PDA models)[11] and a
 36

number of Digital Cameras (various Canon Digital IXUS models). Also

used in PCs to park the hard disk head when free-fall is detected, to
prevent damage and data loss.
MEMS gyroscopes used in modern cars and other applications to detect
yaw; e.g., to deploy a roll over bar or trigger dynamic stability control[12]
Silicon pressure sensors e.g., car tire pressure sensors, and disposable
blood pressure sensors
Displays e.g., the DMD chip in a projector based on DLP technology,
which has a surface with several hundred thousand micro mirrors
Optical switching technology, which is used for switching technology and
alignment for data communications
Bio-MEMS applications in medical and health related technologies from
Lab-On-Chip to MicroTotalAnalysis (biosensor, chemo sensor)
Interferometric modulator display (IMOD) applications in consumer
electronics (primarily displays for mobile devices), used to create
interferometric modulation - reflective display technology as found in
mirasol displays.

4.4 Piezoelectric Sensors

Piezoelectric sensor is a device that uses the piezoelectric effect to measure
pressure, acceleration, Strain or force by converting them to an electrical
signal. In this project we are using a Piezo buzzer to convert Vibration
present in the environment to electricity.
 37

Fig 8 : Piezoelectricity

4.4.1 Principle of Operation

Depending on how a piezoelectric material is cut, three main modes of

operation can be distinguished:
transverse, longitudinal, and shear.

1. Transverse Effect
A force is applied along a neutral axis (y) and the charges are generated
along the (x) direction, perpendicular to the line of force. The amount of
charge depends on the geometrical dimensions of the respective
piezoelectric element. When dimensions a,b,c apply,
Cx = dxyFyb / a,
where a is the dimension in line with the neutral axis, b is in line with the
charge generating axis and d is the corresponding piezoelectric coefficient
 38

2. Longitudinal Effect
The amount of charge produced is strictly proportional to the applied force
and is independent of size and shape of the piezoelectric element. Using
several elements that are mechanically in series and electrically in parallel
is the only way to increase the charge output. The resulting charge is
Cx = dxxFxn,
where dxx is the piezoelectric coefficient for a charge in x-direction
released by forces applied along x-direction (in pC/N). Fx is the applied
Force in x-direction [N] and n corresponds to the number of stacked
elements .

3. Shear Effect
Again, the charges produced are strictly proportional to the applied forces
and are independent of the element’s size and shape. For n elements
mechanically in series and electrically in parallel the charge is
Cx = 2dxxFxn.
In contrast to the longitudinal and shear effects, the transverse effect opens
the possibility to fine-tune sensitivity on the force applied and the element
dimension.

4.4.2 Electrical Properties

A piezoelectric transducer has very high DC output impedance and can be
modeled as a proportional voltage source and filter network. The voltage V
at the source is directly proportional to the applied force, pressure, or
strain. The output signal is then related to this mechanical force as if it had
passed through the equivalent circuit.
The inductance Lm is due to the seismic mass and inertia of the sensor
itself. Ce is inversely proportional to the mechanical elasticity of the
sensor. C0 represents the static capacitance of the transducer, resulting
from an inertial mass of infinite size. I is the insulation leakage resistance
of the transducer element. If the sensor is connected to a load resistance,
this also acts in parallel with the insulation resistance, both increasing the
 39

high-pass cutoff frequency.For use as a sensor, the flat region of the

frequency response plot is typically used, between the high-pass cutoff and
the resonant peak. The load and leakage resistance need to be large enough
that low frequencies of interest are not lost. A simplified equivalent circuit
model can be used in this region, in which Cs represents the capacitance of
the sensor surface itself, determined by the standard formula for
capacitance of parallel plates. It can also be modeled as a charge source in
parallel with the source capacitance, with the charge directly proportional
to the applied force.

Fig 9 : schematic symbol and electronic model of a piezoelectric sensor

4.4.3 Sensor Design

Based on piezoelectric technology various physical quantities can be

measured; the most common are pressure and acceleration. For pressure
sensors, a thin membrane and a massive base is used, ensuring that an
applied pressure specifically loads the elements in one direction. For
accelerometers, a seismic mass is attached to the crystal elements. When
the accelerometer experiences a motion, the invariant seismic mass loads
the elements according to Newton’s second law of motion F = ma.
 40

The main difference in the working principle between these two cases is
the way forces are applied to the sensing elements. In a pressure sensor a
thin membrane is used to transfer the force to the elements, while in
accelerometers the forces are applied by an attached seismic mass. Sensors
often tend to be sensitive to more than one physical quantity. Pressure
sensors show false signal when they are exposed to vibrations.
Sophisticated pressure sensors therefore use acceleration compensation
elements in addition to the pressure sensing elements. By carefully
matching those elements, the acceleration signal (released from the
compensation element) is subtracted from the combined signal of pressure
and acceleration to derive the true pressure information.Vibration sensors
can be used to harvest otherwise wasted energy from mechanical
vibrations. This is accomplished by using piezoelectric materials to convert
mechanical strain into usable electrical energy.

Fig 10: Frequency response of a piezoelectric sensor

4.4.4 Sensing Material

Two main groups of materials are used for piezoelectric sensors:

1.Piezoelectric ceramics
 41

2.Single crystal materials

The ceramic materials (such as PZT ceramic) have a piezoelectric constant

sensitivity that is roughly two orders of magnitude higher than those of
single crystal materials and can be produced by inexpensive sintering
processes. The piezoeffect in piezoceramics is "trained", so unfortunately
their high sensitivity degrades over time. The degradation is highly
correlated with temperature. The less sensitive crystal materials (gallium
phosphate, quartz, tourmaline) have a much higher – when carefully
handled, almost infinite – long term stability

4.5 Piezoelectric Buzzer

A Piezo buzzer is made from two conductors that are separated by Piezo
crystals. When a voltage is applied to these crystals, they push on one
conductor and pull on the other. The result of this push and pull is a sound
wave. These buzzers can be used for many things, like signaling when a
period of time is up or making a sound when a particular button has been
pushed. The process can also be reversed to use as a guitar pickup. When a
sound wave is passed, they create an electric signal that is passed on to an
audio amplifier.
In this project a vibrating Module interact with the Piezo buzzer and it
convert Mechanical Vibrations into Electricity.

Electrical Specifications:
• Sound Pressure Level: 97dB min. / 30cm / 9VDC
• Oscillating Frequency: abt. 2.9 or 3.05KHz / 9VDC
• Current Consumption: 20mA max. / 9VDC
 42

• Operating Voltage: 5 to 20VDC.

Mechancial Specifications:
• Operating Temperature: -20°C to +70°C
• Storage Temperature: -40°C to +85°C

Materials:
• Case: PC (UL 94V-2)
• Lead Wire: UL 1007 26AWG
• Weight: 15.0 gms
• Tone: Dual
 43

Fig 11 : Spectrum of a piezo device

The time signal shows the voltage output when the piezo device is
subjected to motion with a vibrator built by the instructors. The frequency
signal (the spectrum) shows the frequency components or content of the
time signal.

4.6 Super Capacitor

Capacitor is a device that can store electrical charge.In a capacitor equal
amount of positive and negative charges are stored on two separate
conductors.
 44

Fig 12 : Basic capacitor construction

In this project we are using a super capacitor for Charge storage.

Capacitors have two main application:-

• One of which is a function to charge or discharge electricity.
• Other function is to block the flow of DC.

Super capacitor or Electric double layer capacitor (EDLC), where the

electric charge stored at a metal/electrolyte interface is exploited to
construct a storage device. The interface can store a Electric charge in
order of ~1000000 farad. They are complementary to batteries as they
deliver high power density and low energy density. They also have longer
cycle life than batteries and possess higher energy density as compared to
conventional capacitors. This has led to new concepts of the so-called
hybrid charge storage devices in which electrochemical capacitor is
interfaced with a fuel cell or a battery. These capacitors using carbon as
the main electrode material for both anode and cathode with organic and
aqueous electrolytes are commercialized and used in day to-day
applications the main electrode material for both anode and cathode with
organic and aqueous electrolytes are commercialized and used in day to-
day applications.
 45

Fig 13 : Construction of Different type of capacitors

Electric/electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) is a unique

electrical storage device, which can store much more energy than
conventional capacitors and offer much higher power density than
batteries. EDLCs fill up the gap between the batteries and the conventional
capacitor, allowing applications for various power and energy
requirements i.e., backup power sources for electronic devices, load-
leveling, engine start or acceleration for hybrid vehicles and electricity
storage generated from solar or wind energy. EDLC works on the principle
of double-layer capacitance at the electrode/electrolyte interface where
electric charges are accumulated on the electrode surfaces and ions of
opposite charge are arranged on the electrolyte side.
 46

Fig 14 : EDLC charge storage mechanism

There are two main types of double layer capacitors as classified by the
charge storage mechanism:
(1) Electrical double-layer capacitor
(2) Electrochemical double layer capacitor or super/pseudo-capacitor

An EDLC stores energy in the double-layer at the electrode/electrolyte

interface, whereas the super capacitor sustains a Faradic reaction between
the electrode and the electrolyte in a suitable potential window. Thus the
electrode material used for the construction of the cell for the former is
mainly carbon material while for the latter, the electrode material consist
of either transition metal oxides or mixtures of carbon and metal
oxides/polymers. The electrolytes can be either aqueous or Non-aqueous
depending on the mode of construction of EDLC cell.
 47

Fig 15 : Typical configuration of an EDLC cell

 48

4.7 ZENER Diode

A Zener diode is a type of diode that permits current not only in the
forward direction like a normal diode, but also in the reverse direction if
the voltage is larger than the breakdown voltage known as "Zener knee
voltage" or "Zener voltage". The device was named after Clarence Zener,
who discovered this electrical property.
A conventional solid-state diode will not allow significant current if it is
reverse-biased below its reverse breakdown voltage. When the reverse bias
breakdown voltage is exceeded, a conventional diode is subject to high
current due to avalanche breakdown. Unless this current is limited by
circuitry, the diode will be permanently damaged due to overheating. In
case of large forward bias (current in the direction of the arrow), the diode
exhibits a voltage drop due to its junction built-in voltage and internal
resistance. The amount of the voltage drop depends on the semiconductor
material and the doping concentrations.
A Zener diode exhibits almost the same properties, except the device is
specially designed so as to have a greatly reduced breakdown voltage, the
so-called Zener voltage. By contrast with the conventional device, a
reverse-biased Zener diode will exhibit a controlled breakdown and allow
the current to keep the voltage across the Zener diode close to the Zener
breakdown voltage. For example, a diode with a Zener breakdown voltage
of 3.2 V will exhibit a voltage drop of very nearly 3.2 V across a wide
range of reverse currents. The Zener diode is therefore ideal for
applications such as the generation of a reference voltage (e.g. for an
amplifier stage), or as a voltage stabilizer for low-current applications.
 49

Fig 16 : Zener Diode

Fig : 17 Transfer characteristic Of zener Diode

Current-voltage characteristic of a Zener diode with a breakdown voltage
of 17 volts. In the project we are using a ZENER Diode in the Energy
 50

harvesting Circuit For the protection of Super Capacitor. It is connected in

parallel with the super capacitor.

4.8 Full Wave Rectifier

A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC),
which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which is in
only one direction, a process known as rectification. Rectifiers have many
uses including as components of power supplies and as detectors of radio
signals. Rectifiers may be made of solid state diodes, vacuum tube diodes,
mercury arc valves, and other components. A full-wave rectifier converts
the whole of the input waveform to one of constant polarity (positive or
negative) at its output. Full-wave rectification converts both polarities of
the input waveform to DC (direct current), and is more efficient. However,
in a circuit with a non-center tapped transformer, four diodes are required
instead of the one needed for half-wave rectification.Four diodes arranged
this way are called a diode bridge or bridge rectifier

Fig 18 : Full wave Rectifier

The average and root-mean-square output voltages of an ideal single phase

full wave rectifier can be calculated as:
 51

Fig 19: Working of Diode Bridge

Energy generated from the piezo buzzer is A.C.But for the Charging of
battery we need DC energy.So a Diode bridge is used to convert DC from
AC.

4.9 Charging Circuit

 52

Fig 20:Energy harvesting Circuit

A super capacitor (0.47F 5.5v) is used to store electric Charge.

A Zener diode (BZX85‐C5V6) is used to protect the super capacitor .
 53

Fig 21 : Charging Circuit

4.10 Micro power Module

Consists of the piezoelectric scavenger and an energy storage system

composed of a super capacitor and a rechargeable battery . The AC/DC
converter consists of a rectifier built with diodes.
 54

Fig 22 : Micro Power Module

 55

Chapter-5

Result and Discussion

The goal of this project was to build an energy harvesting device that
would charge a battery over a period of a half hour. We realized that our
design would both have to produce a charge and hold together for a half
hour while getting vibrated the whole time
Different voltages are given to Vibrating structure to change the Vibrating
Frequency. Once we found out which voltage did best with both of our
designs, it was time to see which of the two would charge the battery best.

Fig 23 : Time Vs Voltage curve

The graphs below show the data points of the battery’s charge every 5
minutes till we reached the half hour mark
.

5.1 The Future of Power Harvesting

The idea of carrying electronic devices such as a portable radio and never
worrying about when the batteries will need to be replaced could be far
closer than one would think. This thought has caused the desire for self
powered electronics to grow quickly, leaving only one limitation before
these devices can become a reality.
 56

The one issue that still needs to be resolved is a method to generate

sufficient energy to power the necessary electronics. However, with the
advances in power harvesting that have been outlined in this paper the
ability to obtain and accumulate the necessary amount of energy to power
such devices is clearly possible. The major limitations facing researchers in
the field of power harvesting revolve around the fact that the power
generated by piezoelectric materials is far too small to power most
electronics. Therefore, methods of increasing the amount of energy
generated by the power harvesting device or developing new and
innovative methods of accumulating the energy are the key technologies
that will allow power harvesting to become a source of power for portable
electronics and wireless sensors. One recent advance that shows great
promise for power harvesting is the use of rechargeable batteries as a
means of accumulating the energy generated during power harvesting.
Much of the early research into power harvesting looked to the capacitor as
a method of storing energy and powering electronics. However, the
capacitor has poor power storage characteristics due to its quick discharge
time, causing the electrical output of such circuitry to switch on and off as
the capacitor charges and discharges. This aspect of the capacitor is not
suitable for powering computational electronics. However, the
rechargeable battery can be charged and then used to run any number of
electronic devices for an extended period of time while being continuously
charged by ambient motion. Innovations in power storage such as the use
of rechargeable batteries with piezoelectric materials must be discovered
before power harvesting technology will see widespread use.
Furthermore, the efficiency of the power harvesting circuitry must be
maximized to allow the full amount of energy generated to be transferred
to the storage medium. The continuous advances that are being made in
low power electronics must be studied and utilized to both optimize power
flow from the piezoelectric and minimize circuit losses. Gains in this area
are a necessity for the successful use of piezoelectric materials as power
harvesting devices.
Additionally, the intended location of the power harvesting system must be
identified so that its placement can be optimized and the excitation range
realized to allow for tuning of the power harvesting device. By tuning the
power harvesting medium with the structure the excitation can be made to
maximize the strain of the piezoelectric material using the concept of
resonance.
 57

Finally, practical applications for power harvesting systems such as

wireless sensors and self-power damage detection units must be clearly
identified to encourage growth in this area of research, thus allowing the
contributions and in flow of ideas to increase. With the advances in
wireless technology and low power electronics, power harvesting is the
missing link for completely self-power systems.

5.2 Current Scenario

Organizations active in either carrying out research on Energy Harvesting
technologies or in developing energy harvesting products and integrating
energy harvesting into sensing element.

University of Southampton: school of electronics and computer science

This university has a long record in energy harvesting research and one of
the largest team in the world .The team has investigated various energy
harvesting techniques and made a number of break through .The group
developed a generator, which is 10 times more powerful than any other
similar device and is less than 1 cm3 in size.

Imperial college London,Dept. of electrical and electronics engg.

The control and power group at imperial college covered several areas,
including MEMS, integrated circuits and multi domain system modeling.
The group have demonstrated the first working electrostatic and also
invented a type of generator architect that is insensitive to frequency and
presented a unified analytic framework.

Commercial Organizations:-
Perpetuum Ltd.
Perpetuum is a world-leading vibration energy harvesting company funded
in 2004.The products use electromagnetic energy harvesting techniques
offering a good combination of simplicity ,low cost and reliable operation.
Examples include installation at shell gas plant in Norway.
WEB : www.perpetuum.com

Piezotag Ltd.(Conventry, UK)

Piezotag has developed a tyre pressure Monitoring system that is based on
the piezoelectric effect-energy is harvested from the roatation of the
 58

tyre.The system transmits RF signals from the wheels to a receiver every

6s advising the driver of the current temperature and pressure of the tyres.

5.3 Scope
Energy harvesting technologies such as piezoelectric, thermoelectric and
others will have potential applications in wireless sensor networks and
low-power devices. Although micro-level energy harvesting technologies
are very new compared to batteries, they can initially be used to recharge
batteries and gradually replace them as self-sufficient devices, By
replacing batteries, these devices eliminate toxic waste from disposed
batteries and provide the perfect solution to many countries that are
implementing stringent rules to monitor power consumption and
environmental waste." As energy harvesting technologies harness ambient
and renewable sources of energy, growing awareness among consumers to
use environmental friendly technology further strengthens demand. Low
output power and below-par efficiency of energy harvesting systems
currently limit the application scope of energy harvesting technology. It
faces difficulty in penetrating the market as it is still in the early
prototyping or early commercialization stage, as opposed to battery
technology, which is well established. Along with developments in
materials and control electronics, researchers and manufacturers
concentrate their efforts on the exploration of various kinds of energy
sources and improve the performance characteristics. Starting with low-
power sensor applications, they can be gradually used to power portable
devices and utilized in buildings for lighting and temperature control.
Additionally, improvements in energy harvesting technologies would
allow these devices to provide reliable and constant power for industrial,
automotive, aerospace, defense and medical applications. Although the
future looks promising for these emerging eco-friendly energy harvesting
technologies, their acceptance in the market depends on many factors such
as performance metrics, consumer awareness of harnessing ambient
energy, funding for R&D and collaboration between manufacturers and
technology developers. Energy harvesting technology will be able to
establish itself in the market place on dealing with most of these aspects.
 59

5.4 Energy harvesting Application

Advances in low power technology are making it easier to create wireless

sensor networks in a wide range of applications, from remote sensing to
HVAC monitoring, asset tracking and industrial automation. The problem
is that even wireless sensors require batteries that must be regularly
replaced—a costly and cumbersome maintenance project. A better wireless
power solution would be to harvest ambient mechanical, thermal or
electromagnetic energy from the sensor’s local environment.

The vibration of the helicopter structure can be used to power low-power

wireless electronic systems used in the HUMS modules. Health and Usage
Monitoring Systems (HUMS)contain sensors for monitoring the external
state of helicopters.

DARPA(Defense advanced research project agency) program concerns

power MEMS designed to harvest vibration energy from the movement of
wings. The main driver of this program is to eliminate the size and weight
issues caused by the battery.

Piezoelectric Energy harvesting can be used for Bio-Mems devices as a

Biomechanical Energy Harvester.
 60

Fig 24 : Biomedical Energy Harvester

Self powered Wireless Sensors.

Fig 25 : Self Powered Wireless sensors

Wireless corrosion monitoring System

 61

Fig 26 : Corrosion Monitoring system

Chapter-6

Conclusion

There is little doubt that the field of vibration energy harvesting continues
to expand apace. With the predicted proliferation of wireless sensor
networks, an alternative (or at least complementary) approach to battery
power is required. If there are sufficient ambient vibrations available, then
it is possible to generate an electrical supply by using a micro-generator to
harvest the mechanical excitation. There are three main approaches that
can be used to implement a vibration-powered generator. Each of the
technologies described in this review has their own advantages and
disadvantages and these are now summarized.

Piezoelectric Generator
These offer the simplest approach, whereby structural vibrations are
directly converted into a voltage output by using an electrode piezoelectric
material. There is no requirement for having complex geometries and
numerous additional components. Piezoelectric generators are the simplest
type of generator to fabricate and can be used in force and impact coupled
harvesting applications. There is a wide range of piezoelectric materials
available for different application environments. One major advantage is
that this transduction principle is particularly well suited to micro
engineering, since several processes exist for depositing piezoelectric films
(thin and thick). The piezoelectric method is capable of producing
relatively high output voltages but only at low electrical currents.
 62

The piezoelectric materials are required to be strained directly and

therefore their mechanical properties will limit overall performance and
lifetime. Also the transduction efficiency is ultimately limited by
piezoelectric properties of materials employed. The output impedance of
piezoelectric generators is typically very high (>100 k).

Electromagnetic Generator
These offer a well-established technique of electrical power generation and
the effect has been used for many years in a variety of electrical generators.
There is a wide variety of spring/mass configurations that can be used with
various types of material that arewell suited and proven in cyclically
stressed applications. Comparatively high output current levels are
achievable at the expense of low voltages (typically <1 V). High-
performance bulk magnets and multi-turn, macro-scale coils are readily
available.Wafer-scale systems, however, are quite difficult to achieve
owing to the relatively poor properties of planar magnets, the limitations
on the number of turns achievable with planar coils and the restricted
amplitude of vibration (hence magnet/coil velocity). Inevitably, there are
also problems associated with the assembly and alignment of sub-
millimetre scale electromagnetic systems.

Electro-Static Generator

The electrostatic concept is easily realizable as a MEMS and much

processing know-how exists on the realization of inplane and out-of-plane
capacitors. Energy density of the generator can be increased by decreasing
the capacitor spacing, facilitating miniaturization. The energy density,
however, is also decreased by reducing the capacitor surface area. High
transduction damping, at low frequencies, is achievable by incorporating
small capacitor gaps and high voltages.
Unfortunately, electrostatic generators require an initial polarizing voltage
or charge. This is not an issue in applications that use the generator to
charge a battery, as this can be used to provide the necessary initial
excitation level. Electrostatic generators can utilize electrets to provide the
initial charge and these are capable of storing charge for many years. The
output impedance of the devices is often very high and this makes them
less suitable as a power supply. The output voltage produced by the
 63

devices is relatively high (>100 V) and often results in a limited current-

supplying implementation.
The three main techniques of harvesting energy from ambient vibrations
have been shown to be capable of generating output power levels in the
range of μW to mW. A few years ago, such energy levels would have been
considered as ‘unusable’. Modern-day VLSI circuit designs, however, are
being built with low-power operation in mind and many commercial
circuits can now be used with energy harvesting solutions. Take, as an
example, the electronic calculator whose early form required several ‘AA’
sized cells, but are now capable of running wholly off solar power.
Vibration-powered wireless sensor systems can be used in numerous
scenarios and several research groups across the world are addressing
possible uses in ambient intelligence, medical implants and smart clothing.
Wireless, battery-less industrial condition monitoring systems are already
close to commercialization.

6.1 Contribution from this project

Ambient vibration sources were measured and it was found that vibration
levels Suitable for harvesting exist in the frequency range below 300 Hz. A
simple dissipative model was developed to interpret the vibration spectra.
Based on the dominant damping terms of the structure, optimal input
vibration frequencies(operating points) are identified (for maximum power
harvesting), to which the resonant energy harvester resonance frequencies
are aligned. Damping dependency on frequency is carefully considered.
The selected operating point will depend on the device size (micro- vs.
macro scale) and the operating environment (e.g., vacuum or atmospheric),
since the dominant damping components differ for these conditions.
Only piezoelectric material properties that affect the maximum power
generated are the elastic stiffness and density. Since these properties vary
little for typical piezoelectric ceramics, the choice of material will have
little affect on the maximum power extracted. Furthermore, the
piezoelectric mode of operation has negligible effect on the maximum
power extracted. However, the electrical response (voltage and current) is
 64

dependent on the piezoelectric coupling. The piezoelectric material choice

and mode of operation will have a significant effect on the voltage/current
performance and need to be considered once application-specific electrical
requirements are imposed.

6.2 Recommendations
Low-level, low-frequency vibrations in the ambient have been targeted for
harvesting in this project. The resonant frequencies of the harvester need to
be aligned to this low frequency. High quality factors are achievable with
MEMS resonators. However, for high quality factors, very narrow
response peaks are obtained, which need to be aligned with the dominant
frequency component of the vibration source. Given the variability of
ambient sources and micro fabrication processes, it is likely desirable to
incorporate a frequency-tuning mechanism into the harvester design.
This Project has focused on the design and modeling of a single harvester,
which is a component of the power sub-system of the wireless node. The
next step is to implement the harvester design with the rest of the power
sub-system, consisting of conditioning circuitry and a storage device
(battery), among others.
 65

Chapter-7
References

1.M. Raju, “Energy Harvesting, ULP meets energy harvesting: A game-

changing combination for design engineers,” Texas Instrument White
Paper, Nov. 2008

2.R.J.M. Vullers, V. Leonov, T. Sterken, A. Schmitz, “Energy Scavengers

For Wireless Intelligent Microsystems,” Special Report in Microsystems &
Nanosystems, OnBoard Technology, June 2006

3.Imec, “Design for analog and RF technologies and systems,”

www.imec.be

4.Imec, “Micropower generation and storage,” www.imec.be

5.F. Whetten, “Energy Harvesting Sensor Systems – A Proposed

Application for 802.15.4f, ” DOC: IEEE802.15-09/0074-00-004f
 66

6.C. Cossio, “Harvest energy using a piezoelectric buzzer,” EDN, pg.94-

96, March 20, 2008

7.“Vibration Scavenger” http://www.powermems.be/scavenger.html

8.M. S. M. Soliman, E. F. El-Saadany, Raafat R. Mansour.

“Electromagnetic and Electrostatic Micro-Power Generators; an
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9. Sterken T, Baert K.1, Van Hoof C, Puers R, Borghs G, Fiorini P.

“Comparative Modeling for Vibration Scavengers”. IEEE Proc. of
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11.Roundy, S.; Leland, E.S.; Baker, J.; Carleton, E.; Reilly, E.; Lai, E.;
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Vibration-Based Energy Scavengers”. IEEE Pervasive Computing. 2005.

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Scavengers for Wireless Intelligent Microsystems”. OnBoard
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13.“Electret” http://www.wikipedia.org/Electret
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