Wearable vibration based hybrid energy harvester for wearable devices

Abstract

Wearable devices are used in human health monitoring and their demand is increasing day by day. The limited shelf life of the batteries in these devices is one of the main problems. Research is going on either to increase the battery life or to replace the battery with some alternatives. In this research, a vibration based hybrid energy harvester has been illustrated to overcome the power problem of the wearable devices. The piezoelectric and electromagnetic transduction mechanisms are used to develop a hybrid mechanism for the enhanced output voltage. Two piezoelectric beams with wound coils have been fixed in 3D printed spacers to yields a prototype having the total volume of 10.8 cm3. The prototype can generate a maximum open circuit voltage of 1640 mV at a very low vibration level of 1.5 g which proves that the device is suitable for low vibration environment such as human body vibration.