• 전기학회논문지
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• 제57권10호
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• pp.1790-1795
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• 2008

Energy scavenging is a technique that converts ambient energy, for example, vibration and light, to electrical energy in order to supply power to low power electronic devices such as ubiquitous sensors. In this paper, we propose an optimal operation condition of power delivery circuit and design strategy for energy scavenging system in which the generated power is order of microwatt and, consequently, efficient handling of power is critical. We also propose that high data transmission rate is more realistic optimal design objective rather than high energy efficiency. It is shown that disconnection of load from the storage capacitor right after data transmission reduces energy wasting and that optimal value of storage capacitor can be determined at this condition. The feasibility of our propose is proved by experiments and we believe that the proposed design strategy will promote the application of piezoelectric micropower generator to the ubiquitous sensor networks.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 추계학술대회 논문집 Vol.21
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• pp.193-193
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• 2008

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to-electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2007년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.261-261
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• 2007

Wearable and ubiquitous micro systems will be greatly growing and their related devices should be self-powered in order to avoid the replacement of finite power sources, for example, by scavenging energy from the environment. With ever reducing power requirements of both analog and digital circuits, power scavenging approaches are becoming increasingly realistic. One approach is to drive an electromechanical converter from ambient motion or vibration. Vibration-driven generators based on electromagnetic, electrostatic and piezoelectric technologies have been demonstrated. Among various generator types proposed so far, piezoelectric generator possesses considerable potential in micro system. To overcome low mechanical-to- electric energy conversion, the piezoelectric device should activate in resonance mode in response to external vibration. Normally, the external vibration excretes at low frequency ranging 0.1 to 200 Hz, whereas the resonant frequencies of the devices are fixed as constant. Therefore, keeping their resonant mode in varying external vibration can be one of important points in enhancing the conversion efficiency. We investigated the possibility of use of multi-bender type piezoelectric devices. To match the external vibration frequency with the device resonant frequency, the various devices with different resonant frequency were chosen. Under an external vibration acceleration of 0.1G at 120 Hz, the device exhibited a peak-to-peak voltage of 2.8 V and a power of 0.5 mw in resonance mode.

• 전자공학회논문지SC
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.47-56
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• 2012

자전거는 균형을 유지하며 빠른 속도로 주행하는 과정에서 여러 형태의 상당한 운동 에너지가 내재되어 있어, 에너지 수확기술을 적용하는데 있어 큰 장점을 갖는 이동형 플랫폼이다. 자전거에 에너지 수확 기술을 적용해 높은 출력을 얻기 위해서는 주행 중인 자전거의 운동 특성을 면밀히 관찰하고 이해하는 것이 필요하지만 실제 도로를 주행하는 자전거의 움직임을 정밀하게 측정한 연구나 이를 위한 전용의 측정 장치는 거의 없는 실정이다. 본 연구는 MEMS 기반의 가속도 센서를 이용하여 주행 중인 자전거의 동적 상태를 측정하고 이를 토대로 자전거 주행에 동반되는 에너지의 특성을 분석함으로써 이에 적합한 에너지 수확 증진 기술을 개발하는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 일반 자전거를 이용한 도로 주행 실험에서 주행 속도와 무관한 주파수 특성을 갖는 평균 1g 전후의 잉여 진동 에너지가 수반됨을 확인하였으며, 임의진동 에너지의 효과적인 수확을 위해 비선형 특성을 갖는 자기부상형 전자기 유도 방식의 에너지 수확기 프로토타입을 개발하였다. 개발된 에너지 수확기를 자전거에 장착하여, 휴대용 센서 및 근거리 무선 통신 모듈의 구동이 가능한 평균 1.5 mW 의 전력 생산을 검증하였다. 현재 자전거 차체의 진동분리 및 변환 효율 향상을 위한 연구가 진행 중이며, 향후 증진된 출력을 바탕으로 각종 스마트 정보 기기의 지속적인 전력공급을 위한 기반 기술이 될 것으로 기대한다.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 추계학술대회 논문집 Vol.21
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• pp.219-219
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• 2008

Energy harvesting from the environment has been of great interest as a standalone power source of wireless sensor nodes for ubiquitous sensor networks (USN). There are several power generating methods such as thermal gradients, solar cell, energy produced by human action, mechanical vibration energy, and so on. Most of all, mechanical vibration is easily accessible and has no limitation of weather and environment of outdoor or indoor. In particular, the piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has attracted attention because it has a relative high power density comparing with other energy scavenging methods. Through recent advances in low power consumption RF transmitters and sensors, it is possible to adopt a micro-power energy harvesting system realized by MEMS technology for the system-on-chip. However, the MEMS energy harvesting system hassome drawbacks such as a high natural frequency over 300 Hz and a small power generation due to a small dimension. To overcome these limitations, we devised a novel power generator with a spiral spring structure. In this case, the energy harvester has a lower natural frequency under 200 Hz than a normal cantilever structure. Moreover, it has higher an energy conversion efficient because shear mode ($d_{15}$) is much larger than 33 mode ($d_{33}$) and the energy conversion efficiency is proportional to the piezoelectric constant (d). We expect the spiral type MEMS power generator would be a good candidate as a standalone power generator for USN.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2010년도 춘계학술회의 초록집
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• pp.7-7
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• 2010

Energy harvesting from the environment has been of great interest as a standalone power source of wireless sensor nodes for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks(USN). In particular, the piezoelectric energy harvesting from ambient vibration sources has intensively researched because it has a relatively high power density comparing with other energy scavenging methods. Through recent advances in low power consumption RF transmitters and sensors, it is possible to adopt a micro-power energy harvesting system realized by MEMS technology for the system-on-chip. However, the MEMS energy harvesting system has some drawbacks such as a high natural frequency over 300 Hz and a small power generation due to a small dimension. To overcome these limitations, we devised a novel power generator with a spiral spring structure as shown in the figure. The natural frequency of a cantilever could be decreased to the usable frequency region (under 300 Hz) because the natural frequency depends on the length of a cantilever. In this study, the natural frequency of the energy harvester was a lower than a normal cantilever structure and sufficiently controllable in 50 - 200 Hz frequency region as adjusting weight of a proof mass. Moreover, the MEMS energy harvester had a high energy conversion efficiency using a shear mode ($d_{15}$) is much larger than a 33 mode ($d_{33}$) and the energy conversion efficiency is proportional to the piezoelectric constant (d). We expect the spiral type MEMS power generator would be a good candidate for a standalone power generator for USN.