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green_is_now
yes just broadcast the energy amplitude and frequency or monitor on sensor, ...
green_is_now
IR losses stop this size reduction, also the step up ratio needs the wire ...
Piezoelectric MEMS boosts vibration harvester
R Colin Johnson
4/28/2011 1:19 AM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore.—Electrical engineers from the University of Michigan claim to have invented a technique for micro-machining piezoelectric MEMS that generate 10-times more energy than conventional energy harvesters. The research team said a penny-sized piezoelectric MEMS could generate enough electricity to power medical implants in the body and wireless sensors on motor vehicles.
The energy harvester market for wireless sensor networks is expected to $450 million by 2015, according to Erkan Aktakka, one of the system's developers, working in the lab of professor Khalil Najafi, principle scientist on the project.
The team packaged its bulk micro-machined MEMS together with tiny circuit elements that form a complete vibration energy harvester in just 27 cubic millimeters. The tiny unit can harvest vibrational energy between 14-and-155 cycles-per-second (Hz) to produce about 200 microWatts from 1.5g vibrations. The energy harvester charges a supercapacitor to 1.85 volts, whereupon it powers-up the wireless sensor whose battery is it replacing. The researchers estimate the energy harvester could repeat this cycle for 10-to-20 years without degradation.
Details of the design will be revealed by the researchers in a presentation at Transducers 2011 (June 5-9, Beijing).
Funding was provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network.
Self-contained energy harvester converts vibrations into electricity using bulk micromachined piezoelectrics.
The energy harvester market for wireless sensor networks is expected to $450 million by 2015, according to Erkan Aktakka, one of the system's developers, working in the lab of professor Khalil Najafi, principle scientist on the project.
The team packaged its bulk micro-machined MEMS together with tiny circuit elements that form a complete vibration energy harvester in just 27 cubic millimeters. The tiny unit can harvest vibrational energy between 14-and-155 cycles-per-second (Hz) to produce about 200 microWatts from 1.5g vibrations. The energy harvester charges a supercapacitor to 1.85 volts, whereupon it powers-up the wireless sensor whose battery is it replacing. The researchers estimate the energy harvester could repeat this cycle for 10-to-20 years without degradation.
Details of the design will be revealed by the researchers in a presentation at Transducers 2011 (June 5-9, Beijing).
Funding was provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network.
Self-contained energy harvester converts vibrations into electricity using bulk micromachined piezoelectrics.
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prabhakar_deosthali
4/28/2011 6:10 AM EDT
This is a good news. The body implants working on self generated electrical energy for up to 20 years is something fantastic. This enables body implants to be fitted in the critical functions of the body without the need to change the battery . What could possibly be other application areas for such sensors?
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agk
4/28/2011 9:34 AM EDT
This sensor can be used to monitor the different types of machinaries mainly to monitor their performance. Example if the vibration seen is less the productivity is less and if the vibration monitored is more the wear and tear is more.This will be a call for maintance.This tiny system has good number of applications in the industrail process control areas.
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Sanjib.Acharya
4/28/2011 1:39 PM EDT
What kind of industrial process control application ideas are in your mind?...remote sensing realated?
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wilber_xbox
4/28/2011 1:09 PM EDT
It can also be used as a sensor to detect vibrations in its range. As the energy it harvest is 10 times the conventional energy harvesters so it will be basically more sensitive.
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agk
4/28/2011 9:37 AM EDT
I find from the picture that such a big inductor may not be necessary for 200 microwatts. Further the size and weight can be reduced
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green_is_now
5/12/2011 1:06 PM EDT
IR losses stop this size reduction, also the step up ratio needs the wire length.
But it could be broken up into smaller components for highth reduction for example at the cost of adding extra componnets
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wilber_xbox
4/28/2011 1:13 PM EDT
Is there any limitation to increasing its vibration range? Why only 14-155Hz vibrations? I guess that having the broader vibration range can have other usages.
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Bob Lacovara
4/28/2011 4:23 PM EDT
Note that a vibration sensor is a form of microphone. Note that in medical applications, we now face a future in which microphones are implanted into us. Note that the device can report wirelessly. Note the funding source, DARPA. Read the article on MondoNet (go to the home page for it) being developed as a distributed, wireless access fabric that will cover the world. (Note that the developers are concerned with "privacy".) So, let's see: everywhere you go, the government will be able to hear you. O brave new world!
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kdboyce
4/29/2011 1:43 AM EDT
Rule to live by...Don't get sick, and apparently don't be near anyone that is if they have that technology implanted.
Like all technologies, they can be used for good or evil and unfortunately the scale tends to tip towards evil far more today than ever before.
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DrQuine
4/28/2011 7:45 PM EDT
This technology might also be a good way to power embedded structural integrity sensors in bridges or other systems which are difficult to access. Certainly vibration is available....
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prabhakar_deosthali
4/29/2011 2:12 AM EDT
Yes! especially for earthquake-prone zones , the structural integrity can be monitored using a mesh of such sensors embedded into the structure.
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green_is_now
5/12/2011 1:09 PM EDT
yes just broadcast the energy amplitude and frequency or monitor on sensor, anyway this signal alone could trigger a physical inspection of the bridge as it could be monitored for changes to its steady state over time.
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iniewski
5/2/2011 4:18 PM EDT
I don't see that technology being used in human body implants, too dangarous...but some wireless sensors networks could take advantages of this...very interesting, Kris
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green_is_now
5/12/2011 1:03 PM EDT
most aplications will have a well defined vibration frequency but many will not.
Why not design the mems so that the respond to a broader range of frequencie so as to have higher probability of energy being in the pass band of the converter?
Thus harmonics and/or subharmonic frequency components along with the fundametals would most alway fall into the passband.
How do garentee orentaition?
Are the mems designed to except vibration in any direction or do they need to be "inplane"?
That is are the MEMS 3D?
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