Authors: J Iannacci G Sordo E Serra U Schmid
Publish Date: 2016/02/29
Volume: 22, Issue: 7, Pages: 1865-1881
Abstract
In this contribution we discuss a novel design concept of a highperformance wideband MEMS vibration energy harvester EH named fourleaf clover FLC EHMEMS after its circular shape featuring four petallike massspring systems The goal is to enable multiple resonant modes in the typical range of vibrations scattered in the environment ie up to 4–5 kHz This boosts the FLC conversion capability from mechanical into electrical energy exploiting the piezoelectric effect thus overcoming the common limitation of cantileverlike EHs that exhibit good performance only in a very narrow band of vibration ie fundamental resonant mode The FLC concept is first discussed framing it into the current state of the art highlighting its strengths Then after a brief theoretical introduction on mechanical resonators the FLC EHMEMS device is described in details Finite Element Method FEM analyses are conducted in the ANSYS Workbench™ framework A suitable 3D model is built up to perform modal simulations aimed to identify mechanical resonant modes as well as harmonic analyses devoted to study the mechanical and electrical behaviour of the FLC EHMEMS coupled field analysis The work reports on experimental activities as well Physical samples of the FLC EHMEMS device are fabricated within a technology platform that combines surface and bulk micromachining Thereafter specimens are tested both with a laser doppler vibrometer measurement setup as well as with a dedicated shakerbased setup and the results are compared with simulations for validation purposes In conclusion the FLC EHMEMS exhibits a large number of resonant modes scattered in the tested range of vibrations up to 15 kHz already starting from frequencies as low as 200 Hz and expected levels of converted power better than 10 µWThe authors would like to thank Prof Aldo Romani Prof Marco Tartagni MSc Michele Dini BSc Matteo FIlippi and the staff of the characterization lab with the Department of Electrical Electronic and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi” DEI at University of Bologna Italy Campus of Cesena for giving access and providing advice in using their experimental setup based on vibration test system by Tira GmbH and laser displacement sensors by Keyence Corporation that was then implemented with similar equipment at FBK and exploited for the preliminary electrical characterization of the FLC EHMEMS fabricated samples reported above
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