Magnetoelectric and electromagnetic composite vibration energy harvester for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper, a magnetoelectric (ME) and electromagnetic (EM) composite vibration energy harvester (VEH) employing a coil and a five-phase laminate ME transducer to convert low-frequency vibration energy into electrical energy are presented. The electric output performance of the proposed VEH has been investigated. Compared to a traditional single ME VEH or single EM VEH, the proposed ME/EM composite VEH can simultaneously obtain high voltage, large current, high power, and wide bandwidth. When the length of cantilever is 5 cm, the five-phase laminate composite ME transducer provides high voltage of 52 V and the coil provides large current of 97.8 mA. The optimum output power of the VEH achieves 16.47 mW for an acceleration of 0.5 g at a frequency of 27.5 Hz. Remarkably, the proposed ME/EM composite VEHs have great potential for its application in wireless sensor network.