Skip to main content
Log in

Scaling effects for electromagnetic vibrational power generators

  • Technical Paper
  • Published:
Microsystem Technologies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates how the power generated by electromagnetic based vibrational power generators scales with the dimension of the generator. The effects of scaling on the magnetic fields, the coil parameters and the electromagnetic damping are presented. An analysis is presented for both wire-wound coil technology and micro-fabricated coils. The power obtainable from electromagnetic generators in the dimension range of 1–10 mm is calculated. It is shown that the theoretical maximum power scales with the cube of the dimension. It is also shown that the high coil resistance associated with micro-coils severely restricts the power, which can be extracted.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews M, Harris I, Turner G (1993) A comparison of squeeze-film theory with measurements on a microstructure. Sens Actuators A 26:79–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beeby SP, Tudor MJ, Koukharenko E, White NM, O’Donnell T, Saha C, Kulkarni S, Roy S (2004) Power MEMS 2004 conference, Kyoto, Japan, November 28–30

  • Beeby SP, Tudor MJ, Torah RN, Koukharenko E, Roberts S, O’Donnell T, Saha C (2006) Macro and micro scale electromagnetic kinetic energy harvesting generators. In: Proceedings of DTIP 2006, Stresa, April 26–28

  • Cugat O, Delamare J, Reyne G (2003) Magnetic micro-actuators and systems (MAGMAS), IEEE Trans Magnetics 39, no. 5

    Google Scholar 

  • El-hami M, Glynne-Jones P, White NM, Hill M, Beeby S, James E, Brown AD, Ross JN (2001) Design and fabrication of a new vibration-based electromechnical power generator. Sens Actuators A 92:335–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glynne-Jones P, Tudor MJ, Beeby SP, White NM (2003) An electromagnetic, vibration-powered generator for intelligent sensor systems. Sens Actuators A 100:344–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Hao Z, Erbil A, Ayazi F (2003) An analytical model for support loss in micromachined beam resonators. Sens Actuators A 109:156–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosaka H, Itao K, Kuroda S (1994) Evaluation of energy dissipation mechanisms in vibrational Microactuators. In: IEEE proceedings on MEMS workshop, pp 193–198

  • Johnson R, Barr A (1969) J Acoustic and internal damping in uniform beams. Mech Eng Sci 11(2):117–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Landau L, Liftshitz E (1959) Fluid mechanics. Pergammon Press, New York

  • Liftshitz R, Roukes M (2000) Thermoelastic damping in micro and nanomechanical systems. Phys Rev B 61(8):5600–5609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLyman WT (1988) Transformer and inductor design handbook, 2nd edn. Marcel Dekker, New York,

  • Mitcheson PD, Green TC, Yeatman EM, Holmes AS (2004) Architectures for vibration-driven micropower generators. J MEMS 13(3):429–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Pourkamali S, Hashimura A, Abdolvand R, Ho GK, Erbil A, Ayazi F (2003) High-Q single crystal silicon HARPSS capacitive beam resonators with self aligned sub-100-nm transduction gaps. J MEMS 12(1):487–495

    Google Scholar 

  • Roundy S, Wright PK, Rabaey J (2003) A study of low level vibrations as a power source for wireless sensor nodes. Comput Commun 26:1131–1141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen J. Li, Terry CH. Ho, Gordon MH Chan, Philip HW Leong, HY Wong (2000) Infrared signal transmission by a laser-micromachined vibration-induced power generator. 43rd IEEE symposium on circuits and systems, Michigan

  • Yang J, Ono T, Esashi MJ (2002) Energy dissipation in sub-micrometer thick single crystal silicon cantilevers. Micromech Sys 11(6):775–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Tang WC (1994) Viscous air damping in laterally driven microresonators. In: IEEE proceedings on MEMS workshop, pp 199–204

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge funding for this work under the European Union Framework 6 STEP project VIBES, project reference 507911.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terence O’Donnell.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

O’Donnell, T., Saha, C., Beeby, S. et al. Scaling effects for electromagnetic vibrational power generators. Microsyst Technol 13, 1637–1645 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-006-0363-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-006-0363-0

Keywords

Navigation