AN ELECTROMAGNETIC MICRO POWER GENERATOR FOR LOW FREQUENCY ENVIRONMENTAL VIBRATIONS BASED ON THE FREQUENCY UP-CONVERSION TECHNIQUE

This paper presents an electromagnetic (EM) vibration-to-electrical power generator, which can efficiently harvest energy from low-frequency external vibrations by using frequency up-conversion. The generator can effectively scavenge energy from low frequency environmental vibrations of 70-150 Hz and generates 0.57 mV voltage with 0.25 nW power from a single cantilever at a vibration frequency of 95 Hz. The fabricated generator size is 8.5 x 7 x 2.5 mm(3) and a total number of 20 serially connected cantilevers have been used to multiply the generated voltage and power. The performance of the generator is also compared with a same sized traditional magnet-coil type generator to prove its effectiveness.