Design, fabrication and simulations of microelectromagnetic vibration powered generator for low power MEMS

In this paper we report on the design, simulation and fabrication of a microgenerator, which converts external vibrations into electrical energy. Power is generated by means of electromagnetic transduction with static magnets positioned either side of a moving coil located on a silicon structure designed to resonate laterally in the plane of the chip. Previous millimetre scale electromagnetic generators have been fabricated using discrete components and traditional fabrication techniques. In this paper the development and fabrication of a micromachined microgenerator that uses standard silicon-based fabrication techniques and low-cost, batch process is presented. Finite element simulations have been carried out using ANSYS to determine an optimum geometry for the microgenerator. Electromagnetic FEA simulations using Ansoft’s Maxwell 2D software have shown voltage levels of 4 to 9V can be generated from the single beam generator designs.