Development of Micro Seismic Electret Power Generator

Y. Suzuki, N Kasagi, M. Honzumi, Y. Feng, D. Miki, and K. Matsumoto

Overview

Energy harvesting is now attracting much attention targeting at their application to RFIDs, implantable medical equipments and automotive sensors. Final goal of the present study is to develop MEMS power generation device, which produces 1mW electricity from environmental vibration.

Whereas electromagnetic induction generators are used in macro scale, in micro-scale, it requires ultra high speed such as several Mrpm, and its efficiency is deteriorated. In the present study, we employ electrostatic induction using electret as the power generation principle.

So far, we develop a novel MEMS process for Parylene high-aspect ratio structure (HARS), by which we can fabricate soft but robust HARS spring. We also employ amorphous perfluoro polymer as the high-performance electret material, which enables the surface charge density 3 times larger than that of conventional electret material. In a preliminary experiment, we have obtained 0.28 watts power generation at a seismic frequency as low as 20Hz.

Currently, basic analysis is made for development of electret film having larger surface charge density and better thermal stability. Design and fabrication of MEMS electret generator prototype is also conducted.

Sponsor: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) [PI: Y. Suzuki]

New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) [PI: Y. Suzuki]

Concept of Micro Seismic Electret Power Generator

Micro seismic structure with Parylene high-aspect-ratio beam (Suzuki & Tai, 2006)

0.28mW power generation from 20Hz Oscillation

(Tsutsumino et al., 2006)

Recent Report

(Electret Generator)
  • Edamoto, M., Suzuki, Y., and Kasagi, N.,
    "Electret-based Energy Harvesting Device with Parylene Flexible Springs,"
    Proc. 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transducers and Micro-Nano Technology 2008 (APCOT 2008), Taiwan, June 22-25, 2008, 2B3-1, 4pp.
    (PDF 2.3 Mbytes)
  • Marboutin, C., Suzuki, Y., and Kasagi, N.,
    "Optimal Design of Micro Electret Generator for Energy Harvesting,"
    7th Int. Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2007), Freiburg, (2007), pp. 141-144.
    (PDF 300 kbytes)
  • Tsutsumino, T., Suzuki, Y., and Kasagi, N.,
    "Electromechanical Modeling of Micro Electret Generator for Energy Harvesting,"
    Proc. 14th Int. Conf. Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (Transducers '07), Vol.2, (2007), Lyon, pp. 863-866. (PDF 424 kbytes)
  • Tsutsumino, T., Suzuki, Y., Kasagi, N., Kashiwagi, K. and Morizawa, Y.,
    "Micro Seismic Electret Generator for Energy Harvesting,"
    6th Int. Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2006), Berkeley, (2006), pp.279-282.
    (PDF 193 kbytes).
  • Boland, J., Chao, C.-H., Suzuki, Y. and Tai, Y.-C.,
    "Micro Electret Power Generator, "
    IEEE Int. Conf. MEMS'03, Kyoto, (2003), pp. 538-541.

(High-performance Polymer Electret Film)

  • Sakane, Y., Suzuki, Y., and Kasagi, N.,
    "Development of High-performance Perfluorinated Polymer Electret and Its Application to Micro Power Generation,"
    J. Micromech. Microeng., Vol. 18, No. 10, 104011, 6pp. (2008).
    (PDF 276 kbytes)
  • Tsutsumino, T., Suzuki, Y., Kasagi, N., and Sakane, Y.,
    "Seismic Power Generator Using High-Performance Polymer Electret, "
    IEEE 19th Int. Conf. MEMS'06, Istanbul, (2006), pp.98-101.
    (PDF 212 kbytes).

(MEMS Seismic Structure)
  • Tsurumi, Y., Suzuki, Y., and Kasagi, N.,
    "Non-Contact Electrostatic Micro-Bearing Using Polymer Electret,"
    IEEE 21th Int. Conf. MEMS 2008, Tucson, (2008), pp. 511-514.
    (PDF 1.6 Mbytes)
  • Tsutsumino, T., Suzuki, Y., Sakurai, N., Kasagi, N., and Sakane, T.,
    "Nano-metal Ink Based Electrode Embedded in Parylene Structures with the Aid of the Capillary Effect,"
    IEEE 20th Int. Conf. MEMS 2007, Kobe, (2007), pp. 313-316.
    (PDF 4.0 Mbytes)
  • Suzuki, Y., and Tai, Y.-C.,
    "Micromachined High-Aspect-Ratio Parylene Spring and Its Application to Low-frequency Accelerometers,"
    J. Microelectromech. Syst., Vol. 15, No. 5, (2006), pp. 1364-1370.
    (PDF 1.2 Mbytes)

Last update: 2008-10-5