Summary

Over the years there has been a growing interest in the field of low power miniature sensors and wireless sensor networks. One specific topic that has received little attention is how to supply the required electrical power to such sensors. Conventional power supplies external to such sensors is one way. However, many applications do require such sensors to be completely embedded in the structure with no physical connection to the outside world. Supplying power to such systems is difficult and as a result they need to have their own power supply unit making them a self-powered microsystems. New possibilities offered by micro batteries can make them independent from an external power supply; however the device lifetime still depends on its energy storage capacity. Recent studies about micro generators offer the solution to this problem, adding to microsystems the ability of recharging their energy storage by converting energy from the external environment to some form of useful power. The aim of our project is the conception of a micro system containing all these elements, paving a promising and innovating road for future microelectronics applications.

Figure 1 - Self powered microsystem image

This project focuses upon the generation of electrical energy from mechanical vibrations and movements. The main goals of the project will be to use state of the art micro fabrication techniques to build millimetre scale micro power generators. The focus of projects technical developments will be on two transduction principles: electromagnetism and piezoelectricity. An important part of the project will be dedicated to the design of specific power controllers that will manage the rough energy coming from the generators and send it either to some storage units or to the micro system to be powered.

Please visit the piezoelectric and electromagnetic generator pages for further details of the energy scavenging devices under development.