AN EFFICIENT LOW COST ELECTROMAGNETIC VIBRATION HARVESTER

This paper reports the design, fabrication and characterisation of a low-cost harvester in a standard configuration, which converts mechanical vibrations into electrical energy, based on the electromagnetic conversion mechanism. Printed circuit board (PCB) material and polycarbonate housing have been used. The influence of the load resistance as well as the relative position between the coil and the permanent magnet is investigated. The fabricated harvester yielded high performance in the case there was no gap between the coil and the permanent magnet and produced 356 µW to a load resistance of 40 Ω under 98 Hz and 9.8 ms -2 excitation parameters. The lightweight concept of the presented electromagnetic vibration harvester is a great advantage for applications where the weight is an important constraint.