MEMS BASED ENERGY HARVESTING DEVICES

P. Bhanu Prakash Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College Energy harvesting refers to the set of processes by which useful energy is captured from waste, environmental, or mechanical sources and is converted into a usable form. The discipline of energy harvesting is a broad topic that includes established methods and materials such as photovoltaics and thermoelectric, as well as more recent technologies that convert mechanical energy, magnetic energy and waste heat to electricity. An emphasis is placed on device-design innovations that lead to higher efficiency energy harvesting or conversion technologies which are ranging from the cm/mm-scale down to MEMS/NEMS (micro- and nano-electromechanical systems) devices. Theoretical studies are reviewed, which address transport properties, crystal chemistry, thermodynamic analysis, energy transfer, system efficiency and device operation. The study can be extended to device design and fabrication; nanostructured materials fabrication; materials properties; and device performance measurement techniques. The technology has reached a tipping point, because the necessary lower power electronics and more efficient energy gathering and storage are now sufficiently affordable, reliable and longer lived for a huge number of applications to be practicable. From wind-up laptops, wireless light switches working from the power of finger and wireless sensors in oil fields monitoring equipment power by vibration - these are all in use now with many more applications emerging.

In order to fulfil future power supply requirements for wireless, contactless and potentially implantable systems, the present inventor herein teaches a MEMS-based piezoelectric-type, vibration-induced energy-harvesting device. To eliminate the need of batteries, harvesting energy from ambient power sources is a promising solution. Advances in low power VLSI design, along with the low duty cycles of miniaturized wireless sensors have reduced power requirements to the range of microwatts so that power supplied by energy harvesting could be a viable alternative. Vibrations occur ubiquitously, thus it is selected as the preferred power source to exact electrical energy from among three vibration-electricity conversion methods, piezoelectric, magnetic, electrostatic. The first is deemed the best solution regarding suitable voltage levels and fabrication convenience. By using advances in MEMS technology, a self-powered system including energy harvesting and power management can be co-located on the same chip as the working device, while keeping the whole system within a small-sized form factor. Therefore, a MEMS-based piezoelectric-type vibrationinduced energy harvesting device is described as the best power source to fulfil the requirements of a distributed wireless sensor network. However, there are further challenges to overcome in order to achieve self-powered wireless sensor networks monitoring devices in hostile environments, inaccessible parts of the globe and even inside the human body. Some of the challenges include lowering manufacturing costs and optimising performance of energy harvesters, while always keeping in mind innovation in competing technologies such as primary batteries.

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