Micro-Engineered Devices for Motion Energy Harvesting

Published versio

Power processing circuits for electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric inertial energy scavengers

Accepted versio

Mems inertial power generators for biomedical applications

Accepted versio

Current State of Research at Imperial College London in RF Harvesting and Inductive Power Transfer

This paper presents simulation and experimental results for ambient RF energy harvesting and Inductive Power Transfer systems. End-to-end and dc-load efficiency measurements and calculations were performed to demonstrate the capabilities of both systems, respectively. An RF spectral survey was conducted across all the 270 underground stations in London. DTV, GSM900, GSM1800 and 3G were selected as the highest contributors and single banded rectennas were fabricated for all frequencies. Ground level measurements demonstrate that more than 50 stations have suitable channel power levels per band to allow ambient RF energy harvesting. Efficiencies of up to 40% were achieved with a single banded rectenna operating at GSM 900, and efficiencies higher than 20% were achieved for TV and 3G. Furthermore a high frequency, semi-resonant Class-E driver was used to transfer 60 W of power across a 30 cm distance with a dc-load efficiency of 66%

Continuously Rotating Energy Harvester with Improved Power Density

Published versio

Electrostatic microgenerators

Accepted versio

A micro electromagnetic generator for vibration energy harvesting

Vibration energy harvesting is receiving a considerable amount of interest as a means for powering wireless sensor nodes. This paper presents a small (component volume 0.1 cm3, practical volume 0.15 cm3) electromagnetic generator utilizing discrete components and optimized for a low ambient vibration level based upon real application data. The generator uses four magnets arranged on an etched cantilever with a wound coil located within the moving magnetic field. Magnet size and coil properties were optimized, with the final device producing 46 µW in a resistive load of 4 k? from just 0.59 m s-2 acceleration levels at its resonant frequency of 52 Hz. A voltage of 428 mVrms was obtained from the generator with a 2300 turn coil which has proved sufficient for subsequent rectification and voltage step-up circuitry. The generator delivers 30% of the power supplied from the environment to useful electrical power in the load. This generator compares very favourably with other demonstrated examples in the literature, both in terms of normalized power density and efficiency