Energy Scavenging From Low Frequency Vibrations Through a Multi-Pole Thin Magnet and a High-Aspect-Ratio Array Coil

Abstract

The challenges of developing a micro electromagnetic power generator are to increase the flux density from the thin permanent magnet and reduce the resistance of the micro high-winding-density coil. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel MEMS power generator for low-frequency-vibration energy harvesting employing a 16-poles thin magnet plate and a high-aspect-ratio spiral micro array coil. Transient magnetic analysis has proved that the multi-pole magnet thin plate (8.9 × 8.9 × t0.5 mm) magnetized by laser assisted heating helps increase the output power from the generator compared with the unidirectional one. The high-aspect-ratio spiral micro array coil (width: 80 µm, thickness: 160 µm, total turns: 144) fabricated by the combination of multilayer SU-8 micro moldings, copper plating, and silver paste screen printing is beneficial for increasing coil density and reducing resistance, thus improving output power. The vibration experiment showed that in terms of no consideration of spring and guideway structure, when the magnet is directly vibrated by an actuator, the induced voltage, generated power, and power density were 1.63 mV, 0.12 µW and 1.03 µW/cm3, respectively at an excitation frequency of 10 Hz with an amplitude of 2 mm. When a 3D-printed cantilever beam was adopted as the spring and guideway structure for the resonant prototype, the counterparts were 8.48 mV, 3.34 µW and 5.22 µW/cm3, respectively at 38 Hz and 2 mm excitation (corresponding to a vibration acceleration peak of 11.6 g).