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We report a hierarchical hexahedral geometry of interdigited-comb MEMS capacitor for electrostatic vibration energy harvesters (e-VEHs), where the air damping effect is greatly reduced while the capacitance variation remains important. Based on the same frequency up-conversion structure as in our previous design, the device with the new electrode geometry reaches a larger bandwidth (10∼180 Hz) in...
This paper deals with a fully batch-processed MEMS electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvster (e-VEH) having a half-power frequency bandwidth of more than 30 % thanks to the combination of electrostatic and mechanical non-linearities. The electromechanical transducer is made of bulk-silicon gap-closing interdigited combs with a trapezoidal cross section. Up to 2.2 μW have been harvested at atmospheric...
This paper reports on an investigation of dynamic behavior of an electrostatic Vibration Energy Harvester (e-VEH) which uses gap-closing capacitive transducers and operates in a constant-charge mode. This work provides a deep insight into stability issues of a e-VEH investigating four dynamic modes, among which only one corresponds to a regular, stable and desirable operation mode needed for the energy...
This paper studies the vibration energy harvesting (VEH) capabilities for one electrostatic mechanism: the out-of-plane gap-closing (OPGC) converter. The goal is to maximize the output energy harvested from a MEMS device while preventing the integrity of the conditioning circuit. The originality of this work lies in the optimization taking into account both electrical and mechanical aspects and studying...
This paper presents a working silicon-based MEMS electrostatic transducer for harvesting and converting the energy of vibrations into electrical energy. The transducer is fabricated in a batch silicon-on-glass process. Two designs, for 1D and 2D vibrations, are addressed. The 1D harvester demonstrates between 60 and 100 nW of mechanical-to-electrical power conversion at 250 Hz when implemented in...
In this paper, the design, fabrication and initial characterization results of a bidirectional, vibration powered, bulk silicon-based electric energy generator are addressed. The converter is based on an In-Plane Overlap Plate (IPOP) configuration. Its mechanical design is inspired from 2D gyroscope. In most of real systems, the axis of the external vibrations is not known and if we assume that the...
This letter deals with an innovative design for a silicon MEMS DC/DC converter, to be used in autonomous mechanical-energy scavengers, based on electrostatic transduction. The device is made of bulk silicon and is fabricated using a batch process. It is 27 mm3 in volume and resonates at 250 Hz. We demonstrate a net vibration-to-electricity power conversion of between 60 and 100 nW in autonomous mode,...
This paper presents an analysis and system-level design of a capacitive harvester of vibration energy composed from a mechanical resonator, capacitive transducer and a conditioning circuit based on the BUCK DC-DC converter architecture. The goal of the study is to identify optimal power performance of the system, to understand the electromechanical coupling phenomena and to propose the optimal timing...
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