Novel design and fabrication of a MEMS electrostatic vibration scavenger

Vibration based energy scavengers are considered to be ideal power sources for low power autonomous devices in industrial environments, where vibrations are abundantly available. In this contribution a model for electrostatic generators is given and an optimised design and fabrication method are presented. The generator consists of an in-plane variable capacitor polarised by means of a SiO2/Si3N4 electret. In order to improve the transformation characteristics of the generator the capacitor is composed out of multiple shallow capacitors in parallel, which increases the coupling factor compared to non-facetted capacitors.

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