• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.135-142
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• 2015

Human-powered self-generating devices have been attractive with its operation characteristic independent from outer environment such as weather condition and wind speed. However, conventional self-generators have low electric power output due to their weakly-coupled electromagnetic structure. More importantly, rotary crank motion which is usually adopted by conventional self-generator to generate electricity requires specific skeletal muscles to maintain large torque circular motion and consequently, causes fatigue on those muscles before it can generate enough amount of electricity for any practical application. Without improvement in electric power output and usability, the human-powered self-generator could not be used in everyday life. This study aims to develop a human-powered self-generator which realized a strong electromagnetic coupling in a closed-loop tubular structure (hula-hoop shape) for easy and steady long-term driving as well as larger electric output. The performance and usability of the developed human-powered generator is verified through experimental comparison with a commercial one. Additionally, human workload which is a key element of a human-powered generator but not often considered elsewhere, is estimated based on metabolic energy expenditure measured respiratory gas analyzer. Further study will focus on output and portability enhancement, which can contribute to the continuous power supply of mobile equipments.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.66-69
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• 2017

In recent year, energy harvesting technologies from the ambient environments such as light, motion, wireless waves, and temperature again a lot of attraction form research community [1-5] due to its efficient solution in order to substitute for conventional power delivery methods, especially in wearable together with on-body applications. The drawbacks of battery-powered characteristic used in commodity applications lead to self-powered, long-lifetime circuit design. Thermoelectric generator, a solid-state sensor, is useful compared to the harvesting devices in order to enable self-sustained low-power applications. TEG based on the Seebeck effect is utilized to transfer thermal energy which is available with a temperature gradient into useful electrical energy. Depending on the temperature difference between two sides, amount of output power will be proportionally delivered. In this work, we illustrated a low-input voltage energy harvesting circuit applied discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) method for getting an adequate amount of energy from thermoelectric generator (TEG) for a specific wearable application. With a small temperature gradient harvested from human skin, the input voltage from the transducer is as low as 60mV, the proposed circuit, fabricated in a $0.6{\mu}m$ CMOS process, is capable of generating a regulated output voltage of 4.2V with an output power reaching to $40{\mu}W$. The proposed circuit is useful for powering energy to battery-less systems, such as wearable application devices.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.619-624
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• 2015

Owing to miniaturization and low-power electronics, mobile, implanted, and wearable devices have become the main trends of electronics during the past decade. There has been much research regarding energy harvesting to achieve battery-free or self-powered devices. The optimal design problems of a double-pendulum kinetic-energy harvester from human motion are studied in this paper. For the given form factor, the weight of the harvester, and the known human excitation, the optimal design problem is solved using a dynamic non-linear double-pendulum model and an electric generator. The average electrical power was selected as the performance index for the given time period. A double-pendulum harvester was proven to be more efficient than a single-pendulum harvester when the appropriate parameters were used.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.619-626
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• 2019

The advances of semiconductor and circuitry technology dovetailed with nano processing techniques have further enhanced micro-miniaturization, sensitivity, longevity and reliability in MID(Medical Implant Device). Nevertheless, one of the remaining challenges is whether power can sufficiently and continuously be supplied for the operation of the MID. Self-powered MID that harvest biomechanical energy from human motion, respiratory and muscle movement are part of a paradigm shift. In this paper, we developed a rechargeable pacemaker through self-power generation with the triboelectric nanogenerator. We demonstrate a fully implanted pacemaker based on an implantable triboelectric nanogenerator, which act as a storage as well as active movement on a large-animal(dog) scale. The self-power pacemaker harvested from animal motion is 2.47V, which is higher than the required pacemaker device sensing voltage(1.35V).