Modeling and characterization of electret based vibration energy harvesters in slot-effect configuration

The purpose of this article is to elaborate a model and the optimization guidelines for electret based harvesters with a specific electret/electrodes configuration, namely the slot-effect configuration. Slot-effect configured harvesters have been investigated experimentally by several research groups. A model describing their dynamic behavior has also been recently proposed in the literature. However, the simplifications used in the existing model can lead to inaccuracies and a refined analysis is elaborated in the present article. The model is compared with experimental measurements on MEMS fabricated devices with a corrugated electret. The electrodes dimensioning in the MEMS device are chosen so that the harvester behaves in a quasi-linear manner over its full range of displacement. This quasi-linearity simplifies greatly the device optimization. Indeed, the behavior of the developed electrostatic harvester is shown to be very comparable to that of piezoelectric harvesters, which are very well understood and documented. The influence of several design parameters on output power performance is investigated. As long as pull-in and breakdown voltage effects can be avoided, the electret surface potential should be maximized and the air gap minimized. We also investigate theoretically the influence of three types of electret on the generated power: planar, corrugated with partial charge coverage, and corrugated with full charge coverage. With the dimensions corresponding to our MEMS devices, the output power characteristics for the three types of electret are similar. However, it is shown that this is not always true. In some conditions, corrugated electrets with full charge coverage are detrimental for the generated power.

[1]  N. Kasagi,et al.  Micro Seismic Power Generator Using Electret Polymer Film , 2004 .

[2]  Yi Chiu,et al.  Flat and robust out-of-plane vibrational electret energy harvester , 2012 .

[3]  N. Kasagi,et al.  Seismic Power Generator Using High-Performance Polymer Electret , 2006, 19th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.

[4]  Einar Halvorsen,et al.  Design and Modeling of a Patterned-Electret-Based Energy Harvester for Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems , 2012, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

[5]  Hiroshi Sameshima,et al.  Power output enhancement of a vibration-driven electret generator for wireless sensor applications , 2011 .

[6]  Daniel J. Inman,et al.  On the optimal energy harvesting from a vibration source using a PZT stack , 2009 .

[7]  Fei Wang,et al.  Modeling and Optimization of an Electrostatic Energy Harvesting Device , 2014, Journal of microelectromechanical systems.

[8]  Stefano Stanzione,et al.  Integrated asynchronous high-voltage DC-DC buck converter for energy harvesting applications , 2013 .

[9]  H. Kuwano,et al.  Improving an electret transducer by fully utilizing the implanted charge , 2008 .

[10]  Fei Wang,et al.  An electret-based energy harvesting device with a wafer-level fabrication process , 2013 .

[11]  New DRIE-Patterned Electrets for Vibration Energy Harvesting , 2012, 1205.2383.

[12]  Herbert H. Woodson,et al.  Electromechanical Dynamics. Part I: Discrete Systems , 1968 .

[13]  S. Boisseau,et al.  Optimization of an electret-based energy harvester , 2010, 1111.3102.

[14]  Y. Naruse,et al.  Electrostatic micro power generation from low-frequency vibration such as human motion , 2009 .

[15]  M. R. Ahmad,et al.  Design and modeling of the trapezoidal electrodes array for electrets energy harvester , 2013, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[16]  Li Xu,et al.  Optimal geometry of a parallelized electret-based vibration energy harvester , 2012 .

[17]  Z. Wang,et al.  Optimum power and efficiency of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters with sinusoidal and random vibrations , 2012 .

[18]  Y. Tada.  Theoretical Characteristics of Generalized Electret Generator, Using POlymer Film Electrets , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation.

[19]  S. Matova,et al.  A high performance electrostatic MEMS vibration energy harvester with corrugated inorganic SiO2-Si3N4 electret , 2013, 2013 Transducers & Eurosensors XXVII: The 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS & EUROSENSORS XXVII).

[20]  Y. Tai,et al.  Iop Publishing Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Parylene-based Electret Power Generators , 2022 .

[21]  Yuji Suzuki,et al.  Recent progress in MEMS electret generator for energy harvesting , 2011 .

[22]  Y. Tai,et al.  Micro electret power generator , 2003, The Sixteenth Annual International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2003. MEMS-03 Kyoto. IEEE.

[23]  Geert Altena,et al.  Design improvements for an electret-based MEMS vibrational electrostatic energy harvester , 2013 .

[24]  Takayuki Fujita,et al.  Improved mechanical reliability of MEMS electret based vibration energy harvesters for automotive applications , 2014 .

[25]  V. Leonov,et al.  Patterning of inorganic electrets , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation.