Media.Player

Energy Harvesting from Vibrations using Piezoelectric Material via Voltage Compensation in the Syncronized Switch Inductor and Usage of the Tapered Cantilever Beam

IP Title

System and Method for Harvesting Energy from Environmental Vibrations

Detailed Technology Description

None

Supplementary Information

Inventor: Mehraeen, Shahab | Sarangapani, Jagannathan
Priority Number: US8129887B2
IPC Current: H01L004108
US Class: 310339 | 310319 | 310330
Assignee Applicant: The Curators of the University of Missourilumbia
Title: System and method for harvesting energy from environmental vibrations
Usefulness: System and method for harvesting energy from environmental vibrations
Summary: System for harvesting energy from environmental vibrations for wireless sensor and portable electronic device.
Novelty: System for harvesting energy from environmental vibrations for e.g. wireless sensor, has voltage compensating circuit which increases power output by injecting current to piezoelectric element after each voltage inversion

Industry

Environmental/Green Technology

Sub Category

Green Energy

Application Date

Jan 30, 2009

Application No.

8,129,887

Others

*Abstract

Battery powered devices become ubiquitous in modern applications. However, they require frequent replenishment of the energy source. By utilizing energy harvesting hardware, the batteries life time can be extended minimizing maintenance. Another potential application includes replacement of power cables between remote devices. The proposed solution can be applicable to any environment with vibrations which are suitable sources of energy. However, the available solutions that use piezoelectric (PZT) material attached to a cantilever beam can harvest a small portion of available energy. In contrast, the proposed solution aims at improving efficiency of energy harvesting by: (1) shaping the beam to maximize energy generation in PZT material, and (2) voltage compensation that synchronizes operation of the harvesting circuitry with the energy conversion inside the PZT to maximize energy transfer from PZT. Theoretical and experimental results show that using curved beam in addition to voltage compensation technique can increase the harvested power by around 315% in the parallel inversion method (parallel SSHI) and around 350% in series inversion method (series SSHI) as compared to the existing inversion techniques while it does not add much to the complexity of the total circuitry. The proposed solution will generate 46mW of energy, which is more than 5 time the energy harvested by a commercially available solution.

*IP Issue Date

Mar 6, 2012

*IP Publication Date

Aug 5, 2010

*Principal Investigator

Name: Shahab Mehraeen, Assistant Professor

Department:

Name: Jagannathan Sarangapani, Professor

Department:

Country/Region

USA